U.S. announces anniversary airlift

As The Weekly was going to press, the U.S. Department of State released the following statement delivered by spokesman Nicholas Burns, regarding the 10th anniversary Chornobyl relief mission.

In observance of the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant explosion, on April 26 the Office of the Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to the New Independent States will execute a special combined humanitarian assistance surface and airlift mission to Ukraine and Belarus. The combined surface and airlift mission will have a volume of 1,500 tons and a value of $10 million.

Since early February, containers of U.S. government and privately donated medical supplies and equipment have been moving via surface shipping to staging warehouses in Ukraine and Belarus in preparation for distribution to numerous recipient hospitals and clinics throughout Ukraine in April.

U.S. government and privately donated high-value and sensitive medicines are being consolidated at a secure facility in Maastricht, Netherlands, and will be flown to Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 25, 1996, and distributed to a number of recipient medical facilities in Ukraine.

The aircraft will be met upon arrival in Kyiv by Ambassador-designate Richard L. Morningstar, special advisor to the president and secretary of state, and coordinator for U.S. assistance to the new independent states.

Subsequently, a portion of the airlifted medicines will continue on a separate aircraft to Miensk, Belarus, on April 27, 1996, and will be distributed to recipient medical facilities in Belarus.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 31, 1996, No. 13, Vol. LXIV

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