Professor Luke O’Neill is homeward bound after a week-long trip to deliver vital supplies to the Ukraine-Poland border.
The Trinity College Professor of Immunology described the chaos that is ongoing at the border as many continue to flee the violence following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Joining Karen Koster and Martin King on Virgin Media's Six O’Clock Show, he said: “It’s a mess, there is chaos.
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“There is so much fear and worry at the border because the war is still going on. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next so there is an awful lot of upset at the moment.”
When asked exactly what they are lacking amid the crisis, Prof O’Neill said people in Ukraine are actually starving right now as supplies diminish and lines of entry no longer exist.
“It’s everything, I mean even food, people are starving in Ukraine which people are surprised to hear - there is a massive deficiency in lots of stuff,” he explained.
“It was a surprise to me, I mean there are no supplies coming into Ukraine of any kind, agriculture is disrupted, all the shops are empty I mean even basic things like food and hygiene products as well.
“Soap for instance in the depot in Bratislava, there were boxes full of washing detergent and soap.
“You’ve got to remember there are an awful lot of people still stuck in Ukraine. Nearly 10 million have been displaced in Ukraine itself and they’ve no supplies and they need many many different things.”
Russia has so far destroyed 100 healthcare facilities on the ground in Ukraine, and so he said: “Our main mission is medical, so our van is full of bandages, dressings, spinal boards, drips - you know trauma stuff - and the reason is that the doctors in Ukraine had told the doctors in Ireland that that was the stuff they needed and we could fill that shopping list for them.
“100 healthcare facilities have been destroyed so again all that medical equipment was needed as well.
“And then there is so much trauma, so much physical trauma going on that they need bandages, they need very simple things.”
Prof O’Neill added: “Very depressingly, the ambassador said to me yesterday this is a two-year war they’re looking at here, so it’s going to go on for months and months.
“It’ll probably go into an attrition stage but it's not going to be over any time soon.”
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