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One-off public holiday on 8 May 2025
To mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation from National Socialism and the end of the Second World War, 8 May 2025 will be a public holiday in Berlin. more
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Three waste collection vehicles from Berlin left for Ukraine on Monday as donations to the city of Kiev.
"These are things that are really needed," said Franziska Giffey, the governing mayor of Berlin, on Monday during a visit to Berlin's municipal cleaning service (Berliner Stadtreinigung - BSR). It is now important to provide specific help in Ukraine, she said. With over 600 buildings and 200 homes destroyed in Kiev, there is a lot to clean up.
On Thursday of last week, Giffey spoke on the phone with Kiev's mayor Vitali Klitschko. Klitschko expressed his gratitude for this kind of support. According to Giffey, vehicles are needed, whether for school buses or for waste collection. There is also a request from Kiev for school buses.
The vehicles are to be handed over on Tuesday morning at the Polish-Ukrainian border. Three drivers from a BSR subsidiary will drive the vehicles, which are just over ten years old and can hold a total of 33 tonnes of waste. Wolfgang Wüllhorst, managing director of the BSR subsidiary Fuhrpark Business Service, does not rule out further vehicle deliveries in the near future.