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Russia is waging its war with horrendous violence on the streets of many Ukraine cities whose capitulation Vladimir Putin's army wants to force. But while Ukraine troops and people are resisting in those same cities, there is also a rearguard, and it stretches all the way to the other end of Europe. From Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, it reaches a parish church in the city of Barcelona, ​​on the central Carrer Balmes. The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help has become one of the points of collection for material and goods which the Ukrainian community is sending home to help the resistance combat the advance of the invaders.

The initiative is led by one of the two Ukrainian priests who work in this parish church in the Eixample neighbourhood, Volodímir Zabat. He has lived in Catalonia for six years and gives mass to the Ukrainian community living in the city. After falling into something close to a state of shock when Russia began its attack on Ukraine, he has now, together with other people in the parish, been able to organize a collection point for sending material to his country. A prayer space in the parish has been turned into an open-all-day warehouse constantly receiving people from all over the Catalan capital, loaded with bags of medicines, food and clothes. A legion of volunteers, some of them of Ukrainian nationality, plus other members of the parish, are almost run off their feet trying to keep up with all the material that is arriving.

To be sent to Ukraine as soon as possible

The priest Zabat is not even able to remember what material they have and what they need more of. He's been on the phone all morning. A dozen people are in contact to manage the transportation, to take place as soon as possible, of the products to Poland: consulate staff in Barcelona, ​​compatriots who have vans ready to pick up more material and take it to Badalona, ​​where it will be loaded into a lorry trailer for the journey to the Ukraine border.

Rereguarda Guerra Ucraïna / Guillem RS

Volunteers sorting all the material received to date, at Carrer Balmes 100, Barcelona / GRS

At the border, Red Cross teams and Ukrainian civil organizations will unload the trailer and distribute it in vans that the Territorial Defence, an armed group of civilians recruited in recent days, will drive into the country to distribute the goods. Volodímir Zabat does not shrink from recognizing that the delivery of the material will not be easy. The first transfer will go to the city of Lviv, one of the major cities closest to the Polish border. It will then be divided into humanitarian convoys to go further east, especially to the capital, currently under Russian siege. Most difficult of all will be to get part of the material collected in the Barcelona parish to the Donetsk and Mariupol areas in the south-east of Ukraine.

Volodímir Zabat and his civilian militia who have turned the Carrer Balmes parish into the last link in the Ukrainian rearguard scarcely pause for a second. Every minute sees the arrival of new bags of donated material through the church door on Passatge de Mercader, along with people asking what is most needed. The answer: medications, non-perishable food and clothes, in that order, sings out one of the volunteer women, adhesive tape in hand, closing boxes. The first shipment could leave imminently, once the consulate, also overflowing with solidarity, gets all the papers it needs to avoid problems at borders and checkpoints in the direction of the war. Everything will be sent there and distributed according to needs as the war progresses and the occupation allows.

 

Rereguarda Guerra Ucraïna / Guillem RS

Every minute more material arrives to be sent to Ukraine / GRS

Open every day

Every day from 8am to 9pm, this collection point, at Carrer Balmes, 100, is open and waiting to collect all the material that will be progressively sent to Ukraine. Zabat expresses his gratitude for the solidarity of the people of Barcelona who have come to the parish to give what they can and he hopes that, together with the humanitarian and weapons contributions from the countries of the European Union, it will be possible to gradually regain the initiative after Putin's attack on Ukraine and Europe.

Other material collection points in Barcelona:

- Rambla Santa Mònica, 9 (BCN)
Associació Sonrisas de Ucraina
Gala Korolyova (daily)

- Carrer d’Enric Bargés, 9 (BCN)
Escola Shevchenko
Yuliya Dovgopola (Saturday, 3pm- 6pm)

- Carrer Pont del Treball Digne, 15 (BCN)
Escola Mriya (Monday to Saturday, till 6pm)

- Carrer Josep Miquel Quintena, 69 (Esplugues)
Associació Taras Shevchenko 
Joan Cerezo (weekdays, 10am to 8pm)