Czech Volunteers Receive Medals of Valour in Kyiv

The T4U organisation has been working on various projects since 2014. Photo credit: Team4Ukraine, via Facebook.

Prague, Feb 27 (CTK) – Ten Czech volunteers from the Team4Ukraine (T4U) received medals of valour from General Valery Zaluzhny, the supreme commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, in Kyiv on Friday, on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, as reported by Radiozurnal.

This week, the volunteers handed over a fourth ambulance and further medical material to the children’s hospital in Kherson that was under Russian fire, according to the station’s report.

Czech volunteers are training Ukrainian soldiers in tactical first aid, assisting in the hospital in Bakhmut, and transporting humanitarian aid.

The T4U organisation has been working on various projects since 2014. It started with a team of four people.

“Now, there are some 25 of them, which is the core. Those are former soldiers, Czech war veterans, and former police officers are also among them, people who know something about weapons and war,” said the report, adding that T4U staff mostly work under pseudonyms to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

The Team4Ukraine states on its website that its goals include support for civic society, professionalisation of the non-government sector, specialised training of security and healthcare forces, and direct humanitarian aid to civilians, civilian infrastructure, and units defending Ukraine.

The organisation dispatched its first convoys soon after the launch of the Russian invasion, with humanitarian aid and material for defenders. Its humanitarian activities mainly focus on health, logistics, safety of civilians impacted by the war, and distribution of non-food aid.

Thanks to public fundraising, the organisation has supplied ambulances, lung ventilators for a hospital in Poltava, and equipment for a hospital in Kherson, as well as health material and other necessities for a children’s home where it held Christmas celebrations for children afflicted by the war.

The group says it has established various forms of cooperation with NGOs, police, universities and local municipal bodies almost all over Ukraine, with a special emphasis on eastern and southeastern areas such as the Kharkiv and Kherson provinces.

It has built up a humanitarian storage facility in Ukraine, and receives money from Czech donors and firms to supply aid to soldiers and civilians.

Russia launched its attack on Ukraine by ground and air forces on 24 February 2022. The Russian aggression stirred up a massive wave of solidarity with Ukraine in the Czech Republic and abroad. Western leaders condemned the invasion and imposed sanctions against Russia.

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