The plane carried 21 Ukrainian children with ‘very serious’ cancer to the UK so they could receive life-saving treatment

A PLANE carrying 21 Ukrainian children battling cancer arrived in the UK on Sunday so they could receive life-saving treatment in the UK.

Sick young people, from infants to teenagers, will receive free assessment and critical NHS care in hospital.

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Health Secretary Sajid Javid ordered a jet to take them to Britain after Putin’s invasion closed their hospital and cut them off from vital treatment, The Sun revealed last week.

Mr Javid said: “I am proud that the UK is providing lifesaving medical care to these Ukrainian children.

“I know that the incredible staff in the NHS will make sure they get the best care possible.

“I’m incredibly grateful to everyone involved in helping these kids and their families here.”

The children and their family members landed in the UK last night from Poland.

NHS clinicians will assess them to understand their needs before they are sent to UK hospitals for further care.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson added that the UK would “continue to do all we can to support them as they continue to receive critical treatment here”.

Poland has received many children in need of health care from Ukraine.

It called on other countries to help provide additional care as more children cross the border from Ukraine.

UK ministers have been working with their counterparts in Kyiv to expedite visas for children to save their lives.

They also partnered with the American nonprofit, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which specializes in pediatric patients, to arrange an emergency flight for the children.

The Department of Health and Social Care will not disclose the airport at which the children landed for protection reasons.

A medical source told The Sun on Wednesday: “We are urgently making plans to evacuate some of the children and their families to the UK, where they will be cared for and treated by the NHS. their conditions.”

The government has also sent seven planes to Ukraine to transport more than 650,000 medical items including wound care packages, intensive care equipment and vital medicines.

It happened after at least 17 people were injured after a Russian air strike destroyed a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol, claimed by Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced children were buried under the rubble after the strike on Wednesday afternoon and called the attack a “brutal”.

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