“It destroyed a year and a half worth of work,” Auxiliary Bishop Edward Kawa of Lviv, said about a Russian aerial attack on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv that has killed one and destroyed a warehouse belonging to Caritas-Spes, the Roman Catholic mission of Caritas in Ukraine, in the early morning hours of 19th September.
“Russia’s operations are satanic in a way. First, they destroy people’s homes. Then, they destroy the things that can help them in their misery,” he said. Some humanitarian items-like “Packages for Ukraine,” a huge load of humanitarian help from Caritas Poland-arrived at the warehouse only a day before they were blown up by a drone strike, Bishop Kawa said.
Among the items destroyed were 33 pallets of food kits, 10 pallets of hygiene kits and cans, 10 pallets with generators and clothing a total of about 300 tons of humanitarian goods. The entire winter load that would have been distributed to all corners of Ukraine was there, only waiting to be sent where it was most needed.
Now, the bishop said, the goal is that “people are not left without bread, without this help, the most urgent necessities. … We will need really a lot of effort, and a lot, a lot, a lot of work.”
Picture: Firefighters work at the site of an industrial warehouse destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Lviv, Ukraine, 19th September 2023. (OSV News photo/Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Lviv region handout via Reuters)