On this occasion, the shipment of humanitarian material to Ukraine includes two urban vehicles for the city’s firefighting corps, to be used to help cope with the daily destruction caused by the Russian army’s attacks on Ukrainian cities:

• A crane with the capacity to lift pieces of up to 40 tonnes, suitable for removing rubble and carrying out rescue operations.
• A new fire engine from the Fire Service, lent by the Barcelona Port Authority, with a capacity of 2,500 litres of water.

The crane with heavy machinery will be sent by ship from Cantabria, while the fire engine will travel by road, accompanied by a lorry with auxiliary items. The crane will leave on 16 September, with the rest of the convoy leaving on 22 and reaching its destination on 26 September. The road convoy will head in the direction of Besançon and then towards Dresden and onto the Polish city of Nisko, with the final delivery to the Ukrainian capital from there.

Permanent collaboration with Ukraine

Barcelona City Council has shown its support for Ukraine against the invasion by Russian troops right from the outset. Kyiv is actually the guest city at this year’s festivities for La Mercè, and the two cities signed a collaboration agreement to strengthen their ties over the course of three years in the spheres of technology, education, health, arts and culture, transport, tourism and public security.

Barcelona has also provided 400,000 euros in emergency funding for five projects working on the ground to help victims of the war. The UNHCR, the Red Cross, Farma Mundi, Pallassos sense Fronteres and UNICEF were the organisations selected in the emergency call launched by the City Council when the Russian army attacked Ukraine.

The two previous shipments from the Barcelona Fire Service were:

• In June 2022, a heavy urban fire engine owned by the Barcelona Civil Protection, Prevention, Fire Extinction and Rescue Service and a vehicle with an extendable arm, lent by the Barcelona Port Authority, to carry out firefighting and rescue tasks.
• In December 2022, four electric generators to help cope with low temperatures, a hydraulic machine for rescuing trapped people, 300 bio-protection suits, 100 chemical protection suits, 15,000 face masks, 46 sets of safety shoes and 16 sets of work boots.

All the donations were channelled through the Ukraine Emergency Service, which gets the materials to the Kyiv firefighting corps.