From the grounds of René Pol from Annen, a bullet-riddled ambulance from Ukraine starts this morning on a tour of the Netherlands. Pol travels with the Sailing of Freedom Foundation. The purpose of the trip is to draw more attention to the war violence that Ukraine is dealing with.
“This ambulance was shot at in the Kharkov region,” explains René Pol. “That area was taken over by the Russians, but later recaptured by the Ukrainians and with that this ambulance also came back into the hands of the Ukrainian army. If you fight with each other, you can expect a bullet. But shooting medical personnel and medical centers is a war crime.”
The ambulance just escaped a rocket attack next to a medical center, but the splinters completely riddled the car. The medical staff was unharmed in this case. But that is not always the case, says Veronika Mutsei of the Sailing of Freedom Foundation. “We don’t know the exact numbers, but many doctors and medical personnel have died in the war.”