France will increase its total support to $2 billion, President Emmanuel Macron has said.
At the High-Level International Donor’s Conference for Ukraine in Warsaw on Thursday, Macron announced that France will increase its total support to $2 billion to meet the needs voiced by the President of Ukraine. France will continue to act in concert within the EU, with its European partners, as well as within the G7 and international financial institutions to collectively meet the needs of the Ukrainian state in the face of the catastrophe of this war.
According to the President, France has allocated a total of $1.7 billion for Ukraine in 2022.
“The humanitarian needs of the population and the economic situation of the country call for a new effort by the international community which meets the needs linked to the destruction of civilian infrastructure,” Macron said.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki believes that the European Union should grant Ukraine candidate status as soon as possible.
“Ukraine should be given as quickly as possible a candidate status for the European Union. I know how important it is for Ukrainian people to maintain their fighting spirit, their morale. It is extremely important. We must act with the perspective of a long distance,” he said Thursday in Warsaw after an International Donor’s Conference that raised $6.5 billion for Ukraine.
Morawiecki said “today we are faced with the question of what can we do for Ukrainians to survive, how can we help Ukraine to stand on its own feet.”
“Special obligations rest with those countries that have built energy dependence on Russia for years and sold weapons to it. I will not mention any particular member states. I know that the situation of countries differs from one to another, but unity is extremely important today,” the Polish prime minister said, referring to the sixth package of sanctions with a ban on Russian oil, which was recently introduced by the European Commission.
“The another package of sanctions this is what we have to do to decisively reply to all the atrocities of the war, to contribute to stop this war as quickly as possible. Today Ukraine is a pillar of our world,” he said.
Germany, which recently provided Ukraine with a EUR150 million loan, is rapidly preparing another such loan, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the High-Level International Donor Conference for Ukraine in Warsaw on Thursday.
“We will provide much-needed liquidity to the budget of Ukraine. Recently, a special loan of EUR150 million was allocated. Another loan of EUR150 million is being prepared on an accelerated basis,” he said.
Scholz added that, as part of bilateral development cooperation, Germany had already provided EUR122 million to Ukraine to address the economic and social consequences of the war. “And we intend to provide another EUR140 million for development financing,” the chancellor said.
ZDOROVI, humanitarian aid initiators, deliver the necessary medicines and medical equipment to more than 10 regions of Ukraine every day
Last week, the Ukrainian National Humanitarian Aid Agency ZDOROVI received two mobile hospitals from partners in France.
“They will help Ukrainian doctors save lives when every second counts. Rescue them where equipment or facilities are usually lacking to provide the necessary medical care. These mobile hospitals in hot spots are like islands of hope,” the agency notes.
One mobile hospital consists of 7 tents, and its technical equipment allows for the widest range of medical interventions — from surgery for the wounded to help for women in labour. Since Russian occupiers are primarily shooting at peaceful villages and cities, without hesitation to cover even children’s hospitals and maternity hospitals with fire. Most of the civilian hospitals in the battlefields have been destroyed: in particular, according to Serhiy Haidai, head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, there has not been a single medical facility left in the Luhansk region in the first 43 days of the war. In such conditions, each mobile hospital is able to save hundreds of lives of adult and young Ukrainians.
In addition to mobile hospitals, during the war the ZDOROVI agency has already collected more than 100 tons of medicine and medical instruments and delivered them to medical institutions throughout Ukraine. Recent deliveries include Philips patient monitors brought to hospitals in Mykolayiv and Kyiv Oblast, medicines and chemotherapy chairs for the Kirovohrad Oncology Center, and modern medical equipment for the recently liberated Russian hospital in Trostyanets, Sumy Oblast.
Today, ZDOROVI is a team of 16 people, who used to bring into life changes for better healthcare before war, but now they are working 24/7 exclusively to ensure that Ukrainian hospitals and medical centers receive humanitarian aid quickly, on time and in line with their real needs. The National Agency actively cooperates with many countries around the world, including the United States, Germany, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Poland, Slovakia and others.
“In the first days of our humanitarian mission, we were able to quickly get first aid for hospitals thanks to international organizations with which we previously implemented projects for medicine. However, after that – the list has expanded significantly. Others who wanted to help were convinced that we could be trusted with cargo of any size, regardless of the final destination – even delivering it to frontline hospitals. We can say with confidence that Ukrainian doctors now have a lot of friends in these countries. After all, this is how we call those who come to the rescue during challenging times,” said ZDOROVI.
In Ukraine, from the first days of the war, a large-scale volunteer movement and a humanitarian aid movement were formed. However, to become a part of it, it is necessary to gain the trust not only of donors, but also of the recipients of aid. If the agency managed to receive the first cargo thanks to the previous cooperation with international partners and medical institutions, only trust itself helped to grow to the current scale. It is the result of the most transparent working mechanisms, detailed photo and video reports and constant communication with all parts of the process – along the entire path of the cargo to the hands of the recipients.
The agency comments that an important condition for the well-established work that they needed to do in the first days of the war was the organization of logistics on the territory of Ukraine itself, as well as a system for the effective distribution of the aid received where it is acutely needed. The first person to entrust ZDOROVI with medical aid from abroad, Thomas Humprey, notes:
“What people don’t realise about humanitarian missions with this level of complexity is this: there may be tons of aid coming in, but if those tons don’t reach the places where they are most needed, then the people who need it most suffer”.
According to the agency’s founder Nataliia Tulinova, doctors and volunteers work miracles, saving lives in extreme conditions. But their heroism alone is not enough: Ukraine needs help. We have all done a lot together, we still have many opportunities today, but we need your support – each of you. Every donation you make, be it a financial financial contribution or medical aid shipment, is a chance to save lives of innocent people and another step towards victory over the racist invasion that threatens not only Ukraine but the world!
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Finland will allocate EUR 70 million in aid to Ukraine and send additional military equipment, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has said.
“We have made a decision on a further allocation of EUR 700 million to help Ukrainian refugees in Finland. In addition to this, we are currently preparing an additional contribution to cover current needs and assist with reconstruction. The contribution, subjected parliamentary approval, will be approximately EUR 70 million. We have also made the decision today to send additional military equipment to Ukraine,” Marin said at the High-Level International Donor Conference for Ukraine in Warsaw on Thursday.
Ukraine needs a strategic plan for international support, it will be a modern analogue of the historic Marshall Plan, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said while speaking via video link at the High-Level International Donor Conference on Ukraine in Warsaw on Thursday.
“The restoration of Ukraine must now become as historical an example for our time and future as the restoration of European countries after World War II… It will be an investment in the stability of all of Central and Eastern Europe. So that the aggressor knows that he will not break the power of Europe and freer nations that everything that was destroyed by the war will be restored,” Zelensky stressed.
He noted that freedom must demonstrate that it protects and provides people better than tyranny, which for decades has enjoyed a huge flow of money, the sale of oil, gas and other raw materials, which is why this conference is so important for everyone in Europe both strategically and in tactical terms.
Zelensky pointed out that Ukraine now retains full functionality, but needs sufficient financial resources “so that Ukrainian men and women are provided with everything necessary,” and in continuous work, the state, as the manager of these funds, will cover priority defense, social and humanitarian needs.
The President added that a large-scale recovery and reconstruction plan is already being prepared.
If this new Marshall Plan for Ukraine provides for quick and sufficient steps, he said, it will mean that millions of Ukrainians who have been displaced by the war will be able to return home.
“How this brutal war will end is decided not only on the battlefield, but also in matters of economy and finance, and humanitarian support, and in the ability to ensure a normal life in the liberated territories and restore what was destroyed by the Russian army,” Zelensky summed up. .
He added that Ukraine invites its partners – civilized and responsible countries – to take over the patronage of those regions, cities and industries of Ukraine that suffered from the war unleashed by Russia, in order to jointly ensure their full restoration.
“I believe that today Europe will show its strength, you will show your strength, including the strength of international institutions, the UN institutions, whose representatives are now with us … because this is for common freedom,” Zelensky concluded his speech.
