Maryland To Send $5M Medical Aid Package To Ukraine
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday announced a multimillion-dollar medical aid package to be sent to Ukraine.
Medical equipment donated from the Maryland Department of Health includes 485,000 bandages and wound care supplies, and 200 ventilators, including medical ventilators for hospital intensive care units as well as portable ventilator units.
Maryland State Police also donated hundreds of pieces of body armor, including tactical vests and shields, Hogan said.
"It's about $5 million worth of aid, and to put that into perspective of what 170 pallets looks like it's a cargo planes worth," Karina Mandell, chair of the Baltimore-Odesa Sister City Committee, said.
These items "send a loud and clear message to Russia that here in Maryland, we stand on the side of peace and freedom," Hogan said.
The shipments of over 170 medical supplies leave immediately, with the first shipment leaving the United States tomorrow with more departing soon. The state partnered with the Paul Chester Children's Hope Foundation to facilitate the donation, which previously worked with the state to send 50 ventilators to Ukraine.
"Each day as many of us do, we check our phones for updates for who might have been injured, who has been impacted by the latest shellings," Mandell said.
Hogan said the plan developed after he spoke two weeks ago with the Mayor of Odesa, a major Ukrainian port city with a long-standing sister city relationship with Baltimore.
"The atrocities taking place in Ukraine have served as a reminder to all of us of exactly why strong ties and alliances are so critical, and why it's so important that we do whatever we can to support our allies at a time of need," Hogan said.
Shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Hogan and State Comptroller Peter Franchot announced they would apply further economic pressure on Moscow by severing all formal and financial ties to Russia.
Hogan in March told Russian Gov. Aleksander Drozdenko that he would be terminating Maryland's sister-state relationship with the Leningrad Oblast—a region of Northwest Russia.
"Today we're sending an even stronger and more powerful message one that potentially can help save lives," Hogan said. "And I want to thank our state government team for working around the clock over the past week to make this possible."
