The Flemish Red Cross and the Government of Flanders will provide Ukraine with some 60 generators to help supply its people with electricity, Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon announced on Monday during a visit to the Ukrainian city of Lutsk.
The Flemish government has released €2 million for this purpose.
Accompanied by a delegation from the Red Cross, Jambon visited two institutions in Lutsk, in the north-west of Ukraine, which depend on generators for their energy supply.
One was the Dubnivska water supply company, where a 200-kW generator was delivered on 14 January. The Belgian delegation was received there by Mykola Polishchuk, president of the Ukrainian Red Cross.
The delegation then went to the hospital in Lutsk, where a 400-kW generator is expected to be delivered soon.
"The first generator will allow almost 127,000 inhabitants to continue receiving drinking water. That's more than half of the inhabitants of Lutsk," explained Philippe Vandekerckhove, General Director of the Flemish Red Cross.
"The second generator will supply electricity to a hospital with a capacity of about 700 beds, where some 40,000 patients are treated every year," Vandekerckhove said.
Sixteen generators have already arrived in Ukraine. In the coming months, the Flemish Red Cross and the Flemish government will supply others to Lutsk and to two other Ukrainian cities, Odessa and Rivne.
