Ireland has helped provide urgent cardiac surgeries on new-born babies in Ukraine.
Chernobyl Children International had made commitments to perform live-saving operations on children with heart defects before Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the charity were concerned that surgeons would not be able to travel to the country after the war broke out.
C.C.I's cardiac programme say they travelled to Kharkiv but had to relocate to Lviv and perform the surgeries before returning home safely.
Speaking to RedFM News, Adi Roche from Chernobyl Children International says the team of volunteers travelled to Ukraine with a plane full of medical equipment and performed the surgeries in cruel conditions:
"Our surgical cardiac mission is actually based in the middle of Kharkiv, which has been bombed back to rubble and we very quickly found our cardiac team were being chased by war actually, from east to west from Kharkiv to Lviv. And luckily for us, the Lviv is still standing., the hospital is still operating, and it still is functioning despite the fact that there are being surrounded by the progression of the army."
