The priority was people who were in war zones
Two-time Olympic canoeing champion Yuriy Cheban spoke about humanitarian aid to Ukraine and the removal of child athletes to European countries from the war zone.
According to Cheban, it all started with the support of the Ukrainian army and territorial defense as humanitarian aid. Volunteer organizations from all over Europe helped with this.
“It was humanitarian aid, assistance to our military and TRO, because my mother has been associated with volunteer organizations since 2014 and helped them. Therefore, she focused on areas that need to be closed. We started right away with pickup trucks and body armor. I was in Europe and started looking for the necessary equipment in Germany and neighboring countries in order to collect them in one place.”
In parallel, Cheban began to organize the removal of child rowers along with their parents to a safe place.
“This is a continuation of training and training in a safe place. This applied only to athletes, namely canoeists and kayakers. Since I have a lot of communication with the sports community, they immediately responded to our call, and we began to work out logistics in Ukraine and Europe. At the same time, other people began to connect to us, ”said Yuri.
When exporting young athletes, a concept was developed, according to which people who were in combat zones were a priority. More than 250 questionnaires were received during the first days of accepting applications.
“These are Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Mariupol, Kherson, Nikolaev, Kyiv region, Chernihiv. All areas that were surrounded and where the fighting was going on. We focused on it. There were also some representatives from the Odessa region. We provided assistance to everyone who could get out and get there.”
“As a result, a very large part of the athletes went to Portugal – more than 53 children. Also, our athletes are in France, in Turin, Germany, the capital of the Czech Republic – Prague, Moldova. Some of the rowers are located in Romania and Bulgaria. A lot of athletes are scattered across different clubs in Poland. Also, as I heard, the federation is also involved in the removal of rowers to a safe place, ”Cheban said.
Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression continues for the 110th day.
Source: Sportarena
