'It's overwhelming': Charter flight filled with local donations to Ukraine departs Edmonton

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in critical supplies are off to eastern Europe in a week since they were collected.

Last Thursday, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Alberta Provincial Council (UCC-APC) and Firefighter Aid Ukraine set up shop in a west Edmonton warehouse intending to collect enough items to fill a plane for Ukraine.

That goal was met in less than nine hours.

"This project, like this, would take a year of planning and putting together," said Yuliia Marcinkoski, Firefighter Aid Ukraine spokesperson.

"Over the last week, we had 100 volunteers come to the warehouse every day, worked 12 hours a day just to sort everything," Marcinkoski added.

"It's (an) incredible and humbling feeling," she said. "It's overwhelming. It's hard to believe it's true."

The result was nearly 12 tonnes of firefighter gear, medical supplies, and other desperately needed items, like an infant incubator, an x-ray machine, and hospital beds.

Oleksandr Danyleiko, Consul General of Ukraine in Edmonton, says the supplies will help save lives amid the Russian invasion.

"Everyone, from the bottom of our heart, thank you very much for your dedication and for your very needed and very important help," Danyleiko said.

"War is ongoing, and nobody knows when it is going to end," he added.

The plane is off to Poland, where the supplies will be unloaded and sent to the Ukrainian state emergency service.

"They are ready to receive it and immediately distribute it," Danyleiko said.