A large workshop to produce prostheses for Ukrainian war wounded opened on Friday in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv with a ceremony featuring German Development Minister Svenja Schulze.
The workshop was funded by the German government with a €1.8 million ($1.9 million) and is part of a larger centre for orthopedics, where specialists are also trained. It is also connected to a rehabilitation centre.
"This is a place of hope, a place of strength," said Schulze at the opening ceremony on Friday.
Far too many people had lost legs or arms or even their lives as a result of mines, grenades or collapsed buildings during Ukraine's fight against the ongoing Russian invasion, she said.
"But what you can see here is that the Ukrainians are not discouraged," the minister said.
Germany also financed the necessary machinery for the workshop with €600,000. A further €2.2 million are being raised for the renovation of the rehabilitation centre, which is called Unbroken.
Around 1,200 orthopaedic aids can be manufactured in the new workshop each year. According to the German ministry, this will triple production capacity in Ukraine.
In the same period, 60 specialists can be trained. Patients are cared for in the rehabilitation centre after they have received a prosthesis.
According to Ukrainian estimates, there were perhaps 100,000 war-related amputations in the first two years of the full-scale war with Russia.
Schulze said that the psychologists, doctors, orthopaedists and physiotherapists at the prosthesis center were not just putting people back together again.
"They are also restoring a piece of Ukraine and giving hope in the most difficult times."