MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. Social adaptation of Donbass defenders, the international community informing about the situation there and young people’s patriotic education topped the agenda of the fifth congress of the public organization Union of Donbass Volunteers held at the Zhukov hall of Moscow’s Victory Museum on Saturday.
Vladislav Surkov, an aide to the Russian president, attended the congress.
The union’s chairman, Alexander Boroday told TASS that the congress listened to a report on the union’s work. In particular, its 49 branches have already been opened, and the number of the union’s members soared to 14,500.
"Of those, 98% were directly involved in fighting," Boroday said.
"At least 354 wounded persons have been treated, 141 people received psychological help and 343 volunteers were provided with medicines," the congress said.
In addition, 80 people were provided with prosthetics. According to Boroday, among the other important tasks are to solve economic projects and find jobs for volunteers.
"There are highly-qualified people among them," he said.
"Since the union’s establishment, it has helped to place more than 1,630 volunteers in jobs, has arranged festivals for 2,116 children and has done over 550 ‘lessons of courage’ at educational institutions," the union said. "At international film festivals, the union showed 26 documentaries about Donbas."
"Apart from that, the union carries out work commemorating the fallen defenders of Donbass. For that purpose, the website ‘Remember Donbass’ pomnidonbass.ru was launched in 2018. On the site, stories about nearly 900 volunteers have already been posted.
"Complex and painstaking work is in progress, as sometimes we know only a nom de guerre of the dead person, so we question their mates," Boroday said, adding that this November they managed to retrieve the bodies of four volunteers to homeland.