“Ukraine needs humanitarian aid just as urgently as our military support,” Lauterbach said during a visit. The focus should be on caring for the seriously injured.

During a visit to Ukraine, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) promised support in caring for the seriously injured.

“Ukraine needs humanitarian aid just as urgently as our military support,” Lauterbach said on Friday in Lviv, western Ukraine, according to a statement from his ministry. Lauterbach was received by his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Lyashko.

In Lemberg, Lauterbach wanted to take part in a donor conference to set up a rehabilitation center for war invalids. The program also included visiting several hospitals. The aim of the visit is, among other things, to support Ukraine in setting up trauma centers for the injured, according to the ministry.

Lauterbach on the road with a team of surgeons and specialists

“So much misery has been caused here by this barbaric war of aggression,” said Lauterbach in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. He was on the road with a team of surgeons and specialists “to help with the care of seriously injured people with burns – that’s where we want to train, that’s where we want to build it up,” said Lauterbach in the morning from Poland.

Specifically, the federal government wants to support the installation and operation of container workshops for the production of prostheses. 200 surgeons and emergency physicians have offered to work in Ukraine through the German Medical Association.

Lauterbach said: “Children step on mines, lose limbs. Blocks of flats are being shelled, and innocent civilians and children are also seriously injured.” The Russian armed forces bombed health facilities, sometimes several times a day. “Ukraine needs humanitarian aid just as urgently as our military support.”

The Minister of Health also referred to the simultaneous visit to Ukraine by Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens) on ARD. “We are doing a humanitarian initiative here on behalf of the entire federal government, including Olaf Scholz,” said Lauterbach, referring to the Chancellor.