Police detain URCS driver during evacuation of critically ill patients from Kherson region, send him for medical examination
On the morning of August 14, police in Mykolaiv region detained a volunteer driver from Kherson Emergency Response Unit of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS), who was in the process of evacuating people from a dangerous area in Kherson – specifically, an elderly woman, a cancer patient, and a three-year-old child, according to a post on the unit's Facebook page.
On August 14, police in Mykolaiv detained a volunteer driver from the Kherson Emergency Response Unit of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS). This occurred while the driver was attempting to evacuate people from a dangerous area in Kherson, including an elderly cancer patient and a three-year-old child. The police suspected the driver of alcohol or drug use, leading to his temporary detention.
However, it was later revealed that the driver had already undergone a medical examination and was taken to the TCR assembly center in Mykolaiv. Following this incident, the commander of the URCS unit, Mykola Taranenko, announced the suspension of evacuations from Kherson. With only three remaining drivers in the unit, the evacuation process was delayed by over four hours.
The unit expressed frustration over the treacherous actions of law enforcement officers, stating that civilians in the evacuation were abandoned. Taranenko officially appealed to the district police chief and the Ukrainian Parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights in Mykolaiv, demanding an explanation for the unlawful actions and offering apologies to the city's residents for the inability to evacuate everyone.
Written by urgent.news from Interfax-Ukraine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
