Volunteers donate medical supplies to Ukrainian refugees
BENSENVILLE, Ill. (CBS) -- Hundreds of people in Chicago voiced their support for Ukraine Sunday at a rally on the Magnificent Mile. They condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and called for the United States to impose a no-fly zone. Several Illinois lawmakers were among the crowd as well.
The Biden Administration and NATO have said a no-fly zone is off the table for now.
But what is on the table is help for 100,000 refugees leaving their war-torn country. A group of Chicago doctors is on a mission to help some of the most vulnerable.
The Ukrainian Medical Organization of North America Sunday was preparing to send medical supplies from Bensenville to Ukraine for the second time.
Chicago is home to one of the largest Ukrainian populations in the country, and the city is getting ready to welcom asylum seekers with open arms.
Yury Serenbytski has a full time job. He's a surgical assistant rom Ukraine. Almost every day he's packing tons of medical supplies to send overseas.
"I'm a surgeon from Ukraine, and whatever they have there, our time here is like nothing. We have the easy part," he said.
The organization is also working to bring injured Ukrainian soldiers and children to the Chicago.
President Joe Biden announced Thursday a plan to bring 100,000 Ukrainian asylum seekers to the U.S.
Doctors in Chicago explained how their hospitals are ready and willing to treat them here.
"We have the skills how we can treat how we can help those people and our effort will be focused on talking to the hospitals so they can accept those patients," said Yevhen Pavelko, a clinical surgical fellow at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The logistics are complicated. Organizations like UMANA are working with the Ukrainian embassy to get approval from the Ukrainian government to release those soldiers and children, to give them permission to leave the country for treatment overseas.
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America is coordinating preparations, though they don't know for how many pepole. They say they are still waiting on word from teh State Department about how they wil lproceed in processing asylum applications before Ukrainians can enter the country.
The boxes of supplies are expected to be shipped out of O'Hare International Airport on Wednesday. The process of the doctors treating those Ukrainian patients is expected to take at least a few weeks.