VATICAN (SE): In response to a heartfelt appeal describing the situation in Ukraine as a “humanitarian catastrophe,” Pope Leo XIV has dispatched a shipment of essential medicines, Vatican News reported on February 24.
According to a statement from the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, the pope sent a truckload valued at over €1 million, which was made possible primarily by the Banco Farmaceutico ETS Foundation.
Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia issued a dramatic appeal on behalf of over 800 families, an entire neighbourhood, left without heat after military strikes crippled energy infrastructure. Repairs are impossible in the short term, so the bishop turned to Konrad Cardinal Krajewski, the papal almoner, for concrete help in securing heating equipment.
Hundreds of oil-filled electric heaters purchased in Italy arrived in Zaporizhzhia. More than 1,000 of them will provide warmth for families in dire straits, some forced to seek refuge in heated shelters and makeshift housing.
“Despite all logistical and operational challenges,” Cardinal Krajewski said, “the supplies will be distributed quickly across the bombed territories.”
