Two articulated lorries carrying the footwear, which is worth over PLN 1 million (EUR 210,000), departed Poland’s eastern city of Lublin for Ukraine on Tuesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
At a news conference before the departure of the lorries, upper-house Speaker Tomasz Grodzki thanked everyone who had made the initiative possible.
He said: “It is part of the great effort of Polish men and women who have welcomed millions of Ukrainians into their homes, mainly mothers with small children fleeing war and death.”
Grodzki added that many Polish companies were “supporting the Ukrainian people in every possible way, because they are also fighting for us.”
“This is a clash between the civilisation of the free world and the civilisation of barbarians and murderers,” Grodzki told reporters.
He said the Polish upper house, the Senate, and the Polish Business Council (PRB) organisation decided to donate boots because soldiers "badly need such footwear during a harsh winter in the trenches."
“If you lack a coat, you can always wear three extra sweaters… but without good shoes, soldiers suffer terribly,” Grodzki told reporters.
He said the decision had been consulted with Ukrainian commanders and officials.
“This initiative represents a small contribution towards helping the heroic Ukrainian nation survive the winter and win the war against the aggressor," Grodzki stated.
He added that Russia “attacked an independent, free country ... only because the Ukrainian nation wants to join the free world and escape the Russian yoke.”
Grodzki told reporters he expected to meet with the leader of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius later in the day.
He said he would brief Stefanchuk on the Polish Senate’s donation for Ukrainian soldiers, the PAP news agency reported.
Tuesday is day 286 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, wnp.pl