Erie based shipping and logistics company, Logistics Plus, recently opened a brand new office in the port city of Gdansk, Poland. Gretchen Seth currently works for Logistics Plus. When asked why he chose to place the office in Poland, Seth had a logical response. “We expect this to be part of the rebuilding in Ukraine at the end of the war,” said Seth.

As of February 2022, the company had approximately 50 employees located in Ukraine. Logistics Plus had previously donated $500,000 to help support those employees in Ukraine.

Logistic Plus has already been playing a pivotal role in moving relief items into Ukraine through their warehouse in Rzeszow, near the Ukrainian border, and office in the west of Krakow in Katowice. The company plans to help coordinate getting needed supplies out of Poland and into Ukraine.

“This area is full of maritime traffic and so we feel we’re ideally located to take advantage of this gateway into Poland and then across the border into Ukraine,” Seth told reporters. “We feel like eventually this conflict is going to end and when it does, we want to be in a good position to help right away so any kind of cargo you can think of: from humanitarian aid to big project cargo will be coming through this office,” Seth said.

The war in Ukraine has been going on since the neighboring country Russia launched a military offensive on Ukraine’s Soil on Feb. 24, 2022. As of Nov. 21, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that 16,784 civilian casualties, including 6,595 deaths have been recorded. However, the number is speculated to be much higher, and millions are still at risk.

More than 7 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, while an additional 7.5 million have fled the war-torn nation. The war in Ukraine has resulted in the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two. Recently Russian has been facing many setbacks, including not being able to fend off Ukrainian troops from liberating the city of Kherson.

The United Nations has attempted to establish safe passage for life-saving medical supplies and essentials throughout Ukraine. For the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, humanitarians from the United Nations were able to deliver essential supplies to citizens living in Kherson on Nov. 14.

On the same day, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for Russia to pay war reparations to Ukraine. Ninety-four nations voted in favor of the resolu-tions, 73 nations abstained from voting, and 14 nations voted against the resolution.

The World Health Organization has also come out to condemn Russia for violating international humanitarian and human rights law, accusing Russia of 703 attacks on healthcare sites since the beginning of the war.

On Nov. 16, Rosemary DiCarlo the United Nations political affair chair informed the security council that some of the most intense bombardments in Ukraine have occurred in recent days. DiCarlo warned against the risk of spillover into other nations. Despite preparation for the end, the war in Ukraine is still ongoing and should be closely monitored.

It is companies like Logistic Plus that offer a source of hope for all of those watching this war from a distance. It optimistically offers help for the future, showing that the war will end even if it seems eternal right now.