On 18 July, the Grand Chancellor of the Sovereign Order of Malta, H.E. Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo, received at the Magistral Palace in Rome Mr. Pawel Kowal, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Polish Sejm and Chairman of the Council for Cooperation with Ukraine.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss potential areas of cooperation between Poland and the Sovereign Order of Malta with regards to emergency relief and development aid to Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the war, the Order of Malta has continued to expand its humanitarian aid efforts across Ukraine. As one of the first aid agencies on the ground in February 2022, the Order has so far delivered c. 7,000 tons of food and emergency supplies to over 70 towns in Ukraine, reaching over half a million people in need, including 300,000 persons in the eastern and southern regions, despite challenges posed by intensified bombardments. During 2022, Order of Malta teams from all over Europe assisted over 300,000 refugees at the borders and provided 700,000 hot meals to internally displaced persons in Ukraine itself. Current interventions include first-aid and rescue training of Ukrainian volunteers; the production of orthopaedic prostheses and rehabilitation of amputation patients; and the provision of much needed psychological counselling and psycho-social support, which is currently reaching about 70,000 adults and children in c. 60 locations across the country as well as online.

In addition to the Chairman and the Grand Chancellor, the meeting was attended by Mrs Eliza Zeidler (Chief of Staff of the Council for Cooperation with Ukraine, Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister); H.E. Adam Kwiatkowski (Ambassador of Poland to the SMOM); Mr Krzysztof Kubon (Head of Secretariat of the Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Polish Sejm); H.E. Ambassador Giampaolo Cantini (Secretary General for Foreign Affairs of the SMOM); Mr. Ivo Graziani (Chief of Cabinet of the Grand Hospitaller); Mrs Elena Bovio (Diplomatic Desk Officer for Northern Europe, Foreign Affairs Department, SMOM); and H.E. Niels Lorijn (Ambassador of the SMOM to Poland).