A flight from Poland to Spain was carried out with 220 Ukrainian refugees

A humanitarian flight took off this Saturday from Warsaw, Poland, aboard a Boeing 787-8 Dreamline bound for Barcelona and Madrid with more than 220 people on board, including Ukrainian families, mostly women and children, who will be transferred to their reception spaces managed by refugee reception entities.

This flight was carried out thanks to a strategic alliance between Open Arms and Solidaire, an organization directed by the filmmaker and aeroplane pilot Enrique Piñeyro, and the collaboration of different refugee care entities such as the Badalona city council, the Guissona city council, Mensajeros por la Paz, the Santa Clara Convent Foundation and the Pro style Foundation in Poland.

With an eye on protecting the lives of the most vulnerable in the conflict in Russia and Ukraine, several organizations came together in record time to facilitate a humanitarian air corridor between Poland and Spain. A statement from Open Arms and Solidaire pointed out that this Saturday’s flight has also been possible “thanks to the enormous support of the Consulate General of Spain in Warsaw, the DKV Integralia Foundation, Ergo Hestia (Poland) and the company Audax Renewables that has taken charge of logistics at the origin.

On the other hand, Open Arms has launched numerous missions aimed at helping the Ukrainian population in recent days and stated that new immediate response actions will be carried out in the coming days.

“For a few days now, we have been in charge of emergency logistics coordination in the Barcelona metropolitan area for the land shipment of emergency medical supplies, basic necessities and food, under the coordination of the Ukrainian embassy in Spain and in collaboration with different entities,” he said, adding that he had opened a website to help obtain resources for the emergency in Ukraine.

More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, an exodus of people that has become Europe’s biggest humanitarian emergency since World War II.

The indiscriminate use of violence by the Russian army on Ukrainian territory against the civilian population has forced millions of people to flee their homes to safety. It is estimated that more than 4 million people will be forced to flee to neighbouring countries if the conflict worsens.