Amid Water Crisis, Shluchim Dispatch Emergency Aid Truck to Kherson

The situation in Kherson has deteriorated sharply as attacks on dams and water infrastructure in the region, together with damage to the electricity grid, have repeatedly disrupted pumping systems and water supplies. Power outages have also made it difficult to refrigerate medicines and maintain other essential services.

With hundreds of Jews still remaining in the city, Kherson’s rov and Chabad shliach, Rabbi Yossi Wolff, contacted the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, FJCU, requesting urgent assistance for members of the community.

After military authorization was secured for the truck to enter the frequently shelled city near the front, five FJCU aid workers set out from Dnipro with a large shipment of supplies.

The truck carried barrels of drinking water and packs of bottled water for each family, together with medicines, baby food, diapers, wipes, clothing for adults and children, toilet paper, hygiene products and other basic necessities.

Although Kherson has faced extremely difficult conditions since the beginning of the war, the last comparable aid truck entered the city around three and a half years ago, shortly after the city was retaken from Russian forces.

As on that earlier trip, the approximately 300-kilometer journey from the federation’s offices and warehouses in Dnipro took more than 30 hours. Numerous military checkpoints, restrictions on civilian access, the danger of shelling and mines, and requirements for military escort complicated the route.

FJCU officials worked with Ukrainian military and government authorities to obtain the necessary authorization, and the truck was ultimately permitted to enter the city.

When it arrived at the courtyard of the central shul and Chabad House, members of the local Jewish community joined the aid workers in unloading the supplies, a process that continued for more than an hour.

At the same time, the federation recently completed another operation delivering clothing, toiletries and hygiene products directly to Jewish families in a number of smaller communities near the front, ahead of the month of Tishrei.