Kyiv: A team from the North American Taiwanese Medical Association (NATMA) will travel to Ukraine in late August to provide free medical services to civilians and soldiers and show Taiwan’s support for Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia. Jung Tsai, a former president of NATMA and the team’s leader, said the group’s upcoming trip to Ukraine is aimed at sending a message that Taiwan’s volunteer medical team stands with Ukraine.

According to Focus Taiwan, the team will bring medicine and equipment to help those with medical needs and will go to the capital, Kyiv, to work together with local partners. Ahead of the mission, 10 members of the association who will be part of the mission met with Ukrainian community groups in the United States at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York on Tuesday, Tsai said.

The meeting came before U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet at the U.S. military base in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday to discuss the ongoing war. Tsai mentioned the meeting and expressed hope that the war will end soon because war always causes casualties. “At the end of war, peace is most important,” Tsai stressed, adding that the team will bring such messages of encouragement during their visit.

Of the 10-member volunteer medical team, six will depart from Taiwan and four others from the U.S. The doctors specialize in surgery, dentistry, and internal medicine, among other fields, and will arrive in Warsaw, Poland on Aug. 26 before heading to Kyiv. The team plans to work in a military hospital for eight days and will also perform cancer-related surgeries, according to the Taiwanese representative office in New York.

In September 2023, during the Ukraine war, members of the association held a volunteer clinic in a hospital in Lviv in western Ukraine, treating large numbers of wounded soldiers.