Eight trucks of humanitarian aid sent by Turkey for Ukrainians in need due to the ongoing war and those who fled the country have been delivered to local authorities in Ukraine and neighboring Moldova, said the state-run Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) on Wednesday.
In a statement, the agency said that five aid trucks, including food, personal care items, blankets, beds and tents, were delivered to authorities in Ukraine. Three more were delivered to Moldova, where the United Nations says some 80,000 Ukrainians have fled due to Russia's war on their country.
Quoting Sergiu Diaconu from Moldova's Interior Ministry, the statement said: "We face a large population shift."
Turkey is "one of the first countries to lend a helping hand," he said, adding that Moldova is "grateful to the helpful Turkish people."
According to the statement, the AFAD team continues to distribute aid to those in need at the Siret Border Gate on the Romanian border with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, an 11-member AFAD humanitarian aid team continues to work in the region to gauge the humanitarian needs in Ukraine and to coordinate the aid sent from Turkey.
The humanitarian aid trucks sent to the Ukrainian people and Turkish citizens in the region include 1,536 food parcels, 360 family tents, 16 general-purpose tents, 680 beds, 680 bedding sets and 2,640 blankets.
Meanwhile, a team from the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) offered refreshments to locals with a mobile vehicle they set up in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.
The metropolitan municipalities of Konya and Gaziantep provinces as well as the Esenler Municipality in Istanbul are also set to send 15 truckloads of aid material, including food, clothing, hygiene materials and blankets, to Ukraine.
The municipalities have been in contact with AFAD, which will facilitate the distribution of the items. At the same time, Turkey has also continued its efforts to evacuate people from the war zone.
The country has evacuated 404 additional Turkish nationals from Ukraine amid war in that country, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Wednesday.
Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter that with the new evacuations, the total number of citizens who have been evacuated is 8,454.
The evacuations have been done through Bucharest in Romania and the Polish capital, Warsaw.
Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Mustafa Şentop on Wednesday said that Russia's war on Ukraine poses a regional and global crisis.
"This crisis poses a regional threat. It is a threat to all countries in the region, even to Europe and to world peace," Şentop told his Lithuanian counterpart Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen Nielsen in a phone call, according to a statement issued by the speaker's office.
He noted that Turkey "urgently" wanted a permanent and sustainable cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia.
"We hope that the dialogue channel is effectively processed (between the two countries)," he said. "We express our strong support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine on all grounds."
Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal also highlighted the necessity of cooperation in arms control and disarmament as Europe faces the worst crisis since the Cold War amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Maintaining its neutral and balanced stance, Turkey continues its diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the Ukraine conflict, urging all sides for restraint. While Ankara has opposed international sanctions aiming to isolate Moscow, it also closed its Bosporus and Dardanelles straits under a 1936 pact, allowing it to curb some Russian vessels from crossing the Turkish Straits.
NATO ally Turkey borders Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea and has good ties with both. Since the beginning of the conflict, Ankara has offered to mediate between the two sides and offered to host peace talks, also underlining its support to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. While recently calling Russia’s invasion an unacceptable violation of international law, Turkey has carefully formulated its rhetoric not to offend Moscow, with which it has close energy, defense and tourism ties.
Since Russia’s war on Ukraine began last Thursday, it has been met by outrage from the international community, with the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States implementing a range of economic sanctions on Russia. Many Western countries are also supplying Ukraine with weapons, have shut their airspace for Russian airlines, and banned or restricted Russian state-run media.