Norway will not evacuate wounded soldiers from Ukraine directly: “It is currently not possible to fly to Ukraine”
Wounded soldiers that Norway is to evacuate must first be transported to a neighboring country by someone other than Norway, the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Management stated on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, it became clear that Norway would take in wounded soldiers from the Ukraine war. But Norway does not have the opportunity to evacuate soldiers straight from the front, State Secretary Astrid Bergmål (AP) in the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness wrote in an email to NTB.
Injured soldiers that the Ukrainian authorities want to evacuate must first be transported to one of the neighboring countries. Further evacuation to Norway will take place from there, Bergmål wrote.
Melby’s critique
Liberal Party (V) leader Guri Melby said on Tuesday that the government should bring wounded soldiers to Norway directly from Ukraine.
“It is incomprehensible to me if the government now still refuses to accept wounded soldiers directly from Ukraine and that they must come from third countries, which takes longer and makes the situation more critical,” she told VG on Tuesday.
The Ministry insists that the soldiers can not be retrieved directly from Ukraine.
“It is currently not possible to fly to Ukraine, much less to the front. Both Norway and other countries that contribute with medical evacuations must consider the safety of their own personnel.”
No other country evacuates wounded soldiers directly from Ukraine, Bergmål stated.
Regular routines
Bergmål added that the evacuation of wounded soldiers would take place through the same mechanisms as the evacuation of wounded civilians.
“Fixed routines have been set up for handling the transport of patients, and Norway has several aircraft capacities that can be used.”
Norway was first asked to provide assistance through the EU scheme for civil emergency preparedness on April 23. Three new requests were received in May.
Source : © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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