Prague sends hundreds of heaters to Ukrainian cities

The Czech capital has sent heaters and generators to Ukrainian cities hit by power outages due to attacks on its infrastructure.

Outgoing Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib and Ukrainian charge d'affaires Vitalii Usatyi said that 626 diesel heaters and 18 power generators were sent to the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Mykolaiv. The city of Olomouc, in Central Moravia, dispatched hundreds of generators to Kolomyia, in Western Ukraine.

The heaters and generators left the Czech capital city Wednesday on a train due to arrive in Cierna nad Tisou at the border of Slovakia and then in Ukraine in a day or two.

Hřib said 400 heaters and 10 generators were bound for Kyiv and 226 heaters and eight generators for Mykolaiv. Authorities from those cities will decide on their use.

"We had these things in case some unexpected event occurred but I believe that the unexpected event occurred just now and they are needed somewhere else," he said.

He said firefighters still have supplies for Prague.

Usatyi expressed his thanks to Prague and to Czech Rail's cargo freight train firm. "I believe that this cooperation and support will continue because we will certainly need your support until our victory," Usatyi said.

In addition to supplies from Prague, a truck with 230 generators, medical supplies, and two inflatable tents, paid for by fundraising efforts of the local Archdiocesan Caritas organization, departed for the town of Kolomyia in western Ukraine from Olomouc.

Russia began its military offensive against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine has faced widespread shelling of its energy infrastructure since mid-October with the invasion seriously damaging the country's power network.

As temperatures fall and the war continues, the Ukrainian government is telling refugees not to return. It is also calling on citizens of liberated Kherson and Mykolaiv to leave before winter sets in.