Plane that brought displaced Ukrainians to Sask. returns to Poland with supplies

A plane that brought Ukrainian citizens to Saskatchewan is flying back to Poland full of supplies.

Volunteers loaded up the aircraft with food, clothes, sleeping bags, water purification tablets and firefighter equipment in Regina on Wednesday night, according to a tweet from Premier Scott Moe.

More than two dozen provincial government and airport employees volunteered to help load the humanitarian supplies into the plane.

“So we put a call out for volunteers on very short notice within the civil service and we had numerous responses,” said Chantelle Patrick of the Saskatchewan Ukraine Response Team.

“Today, these supplies were loaded onto the plane and will be delivered to the Ukrainian embassy in Poland, where they will be distributed to those who need it most,” Moe said in the tweet.

From Warsaw, the shipment will be sent to Ukraine to help those facing the war.

 

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The plane arrived in Regina on Monday night, bringing with it 230 Ukrainians – including 100 children – fleeing the war in their home country.

It was the first charter flight bringing displaced citizens to Saskatchewan.

The newly arrived Ukrainians are now getting established with everything they need, from social insurance numbers to health cards, bank accounts and jobs.

Olga Machuga arrived in Regina this week after fleeing the war in Ukraine.

“There are a lot of Ukrainians but they don’t have anyone here and they even don’t know English, neither French and they are so brave they’ve world comes over the ocean,” she said.

The new arrivals are living at a University of Regina residence until they settle in over the next two weeks. Many organizations are helping with that process.

“We are helping to settle, to find first of all community through different organizations like churches, different groups like dance classes,” said Liuba Krupina of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.