A CIVIL society group in New York had hundreds of bulletproof vests stolen after they were donated by officers and destined for Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion, police and the organisation said yesterday.

The theft occurred at the headquarters of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), where police arrived Wednesday and learned that “approximately 400 bulletproof vests were removed from the location,” NY Police Department spokesman Lieutenant Jessica McRorie said.

“There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing,” she added.

A UCCA spokesman said a smaller number of vests, about 300, were missing from the group’s Manhattan location. “We don’t know… why, how” the robbery occurred, or who would have committed it, the spokesman told AFP.

The secondhand vests were donated by the police on Long Island, New York and were to be sent to aid workers who would deliver them by truck throughout Ukraine, the group said.

UCCA said it oversees dozens of Ukrainian-American groups in the United States, which is home to an estimated 1.2 million to 1.5 million people of Ukrainian origin.

Since the Russian invasion began three weeks ago, many US organisations have been mobilising to help raise funds and collect and ship food, clothing, toiletries, medicine and non-lethal light military equipment such as body armour and helmets to the Eastern European nation. – AFP, March 18, 2022.