The European Union has opened a medical center in Poland before the wounded and sick can be airlifted from Ukraine to other European countries, the commission said on Thursday.

The European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janus Lenarczyk, along with the Polish and Ukrainian Ministers of Health, inaugurated the Medevac Center located near the Rzeszow Airport (south-eastern Poland, 80 km from the border with Ukraine).

Patients, civilians or soldiers can benefit from care, vaccinations, disease screening and psychological support. Norway provides two flights a week to transfer them to hospitals in other European countries and ease pressure on Ukraine’s neighbors Poland, Moldova and Slovakia.

“The number of wounded in Ukraine is increasing daily, and hospitals with a shortage of equipment are struggling to meet the demand. Meanwhile, the destruction of health care structures deprives patients with chronic diseases of the treatment they need to survive. We cannot abandon these people.”Janus Lenarcic was quoted as saying in a press release from the European Executive. “The medical evacuation center will play a key role in the rapid transfer of patients to hospitals in Europe”He pointed out.

Since the European Union began its evacuation program on March 11, two weeks after the start of the Russian invasion, 1,143 Ukrainian patients have been transferred to eighteen European countries (Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Romania, Luxembourg, and Belgium). , Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic).