Norway will allocate an additional NOK 1 billion ($92 million) to provide Ukrainians with access to protection and vital assistance, according to a statement on the government’s website.
“The civilian population of Ukraine has suffered greatly as a result of the brutal war waged by Russia. The efforts of the Ukrainian people to combat the daily attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure have been heroic. They need our help to survive another winter of war,” said Foreign Minister Anneken Huitfeldt.
She was speaking at the opening of the third Senior Humanitarian Officials Meeting on Ukraine, which is being held in Oslo jointly by Norway and the EU.
The meeting is focused on the difficult humanitarian situation caused by the war in Ukraine, as well as on the rapid provision of necessary assistance to the civilian population. In addition, the transition from short-term humanitarian aid to long-term recovery efforts will be discussed.
It is noted that the 150 participants of the meeting include representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, the UN, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, humanitarian organizations and donor countries.
According to UN estimates, more than 17 million people in Ukraine need humanitarian assistance. Around 5 million people are internally displaced, and more than 6.2 million people have fled the country to seek refuge in other countries because of Russia’s attack.
Humanitarian funding is channelled through the UN, including the Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
The humanitarian agency ZDOROVI delivered 29 tons of humanitarian aid to hospitals in 49 Ukrainian cities and towns in August.
Natalia Tulinova, founder of ZDOROVI, told Interfax-Ukraine that the aid was provided, in part, thanks to the agency’s cooperation with international partners, including ICAP Ednannia, MedShare, Embrace, RAZOM for UKRAINE, NOVA Ukraine, Americares, USAID, PHILIPS, and other charitable foundations and organizations.
She also said that in September, representatives of the ZDOROVI agency team took part in two international conferences – the First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit and the Americares Ukraine Partner Summit – to discuss support for Ukrainian medical institutions and ensuring patients’ access to medical care in the occupied and frontline territories.
“We are building a charitable organization that meets the standards of work in the international community in every detail, so that our donors and partners can be confident in the transparency of the processes related to humanitarian aid to Ukraine,” Tulinova said.
She also emphasized that “a fundamental platform for our country’s full participation in the global healthcare system is being built.”
The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine has announced a change in the rules for importing and accounting for humanitarian aid starting December 1.
“On September 5, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution “Some issues of humanitarian aid entry and accounting under martial law”. According to the resolution, the rules for importing and accounting for humanitarian aid are being changed, and information about it will be digitized in an automated system,” the ministry’s press service said.
It is noted that among the main changes is the introduction of an accessible electronic tool for accounting for humanitarian aid.
In particular, using the web platform “Automated System for Registration of Humanitarian Aid,” organizations intending to import humanitarian aid will be able to register, log in to the site, form and submit a declaration, which will be sent to customs through information exchange.
“The system will automatically assign a unique code to the declaration. This code will be used by customs officers to let the cargo through,” the agency emphasized.
This preserves the declarative principle of importing humanitarian aid under martial law, and simplifies the process of importing such goods.
It also stipulates that organizations importing humanitarian aid will submit public reports after its distribution.
“After the organization has imported the aid, it will have to describe it in the system before distributing it. Then, the data will have to be entered: when and where (without specifying personal data of individuals) the cargo was distributed, whether there are any leftovers and what they are. Such a mechanism will show the path of humanitarian aid from the donor through the recipient to the recipients and guarantee the transparency of the process,” the ministry added.
In addition, the adopted resolution cancels letters of guarantee, which means that humanitarian aid for the military will be imported without additional bureaucratic burden.
According to the report, the system will be launched on December 1, 2023.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, pharma company Novo Nordisk has provided Ukraine with humanitarian and charitable assistance in various ways for more than 900 million UAH.
According to its press release, in addition, throughout 2019-2023, more than 100 Ukrainian hospitals have received equipment for continuous blood glucose measurement totaling UAH 8 million from the company.
“In the first months of the war, to avoid shortages of insulin and other vital drugs, we transferred to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine a six-month supply of insulins of different types and more than a third of the annual need for blood clotting factors. Together we were able to provide insulins to more than 50 thousand patients in different parts of Ukraine”, – the press release quotes the words of the General Director of “Novo Nordisk Ukraine” Vladislav Moroz.
It is specified that since the beginning of the full-scale war humanitarian aid from Novo Nordisk with insulins and other medicines has been delivered to hot spots in the temporarily occupied territories in cooperation with volunteers and charitable organizations, in particular, BF Zhiznelyub, BF Patients of Ukraine, BF Save Mariupol.
In addition, Novo Nordisk joined an international initiative to rebuild Mykolayiv and Mykolayiv region affected by the war.
“Novo Nordisk has allocated $5 million, which will be used to restore critical infrastructure in Nikolaev, in particular water and power plants, and humanitarian aid to the residents of the city and region. A separate budget is provided for the restoration of medical infrastructure and additional supplies of medical equipment needed by hospitals in Mykolaiv and the region,” Moroz said.
Novo Nordisk is a leading global medical company founded in 1923 and headquartered in Denmark. The company specializes in overcoming diabetes and other serious chronic diseases such as obesity, rare blood clotting and endocrine disorders. The company employs about 55,000 people in 80 countries and sells its products in about 170 countries.
Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odessa, Ukraine) received as humanitarian aid the drug melphalan for the treatment of retinoblastoma, an intraocular malignant tumor in children.
As the Interfax-Ukraine agency was informed at the clinic, the drug is used to treat this tumor with the Institute’s own combined polychemotherapy method which implies injecting the drug directly into the tumor in combination with general polychemotherapy. This method allows to save the eye affected by the tumor and even vision in 80% of cases, including those with retinoblastoma stage 3-4.
The drug used for intraocular injections is melphalan, which is produced by Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited.
“Unfortunately, recently it has been impossible to purchase melphalan for injections in Ukraine. The institute has taken active steps to obtain the drug,” the institute reported.
Obtaining the drug was made possible thanks to the efforts of Olga Nikitchenko, head of the patronage service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa Lubov Abravitova, and Stavros Nikolau, senior executive director of Aspen Group, with support from the We Stand with Ukraine Foundation.
“The drug was delivered to the Filatov Institute. And literally the next day the first patient received treatment to save his vision and life,” the clinic reported.
Retinoblastoma is an intraocular highly malignant retinal tumor that develops mainly in children in the first two years of life and accounts for 89.3% to 98.2% of all intraocular neoplasms in children. Retinoblastoma incidence rate in the world is currently 1 case per 10-15 thousands newborns.
Due to asymptomatic course of the disease the majority of children (85-86%) come to the clinics with far advanced stage of retinoblastoma and even up to now many clinics have considered that the only way to save the life of the child was to remove the tumor together with the eye.
Retinoblastoma treatment in Ukraine is carried out at the Department of Pediatric Ophthalmopathology of the Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy named after Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy. V.P.Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of NAMS of Ukraine”. In recent years, the clinic has treated about 300 children with retinoblastoma aged from three months to eight years. One child receives from three to 20 injections, depending on the stage of the disease.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has decided to increase humanitarian aid to Africa and Asia by an additional 21,000 tons of corn or wheat, and also changed the terms of their delivery from CIF (sender pays cargo insurance) to FOB (delivery of goods before loading on board the ship).
According to the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk in his Telegram channel, the relevant decision was taken at a government meeting on Friday.
Earlier, in November, the government passed resolution No. 1313, approving the allocation of 900 million UAH to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (MIA) for its constituent State Emergency Service (SES) to purchase in Ukraine and subsequent delivery to the Republic of Sudan, Republic of Yemen, Republic of Kenya and Federal Republic of Nigeria of up to 64 thousand tons of corn or wheat grain. In addition, Ukraine undertook to send at least 125 thousand tons of wheat and corn (quality not lower than the 3rd class).
Thus, taking into account the decree adopted on 23 December, the four countries will receive from Ukraine up to 210 thousand tons of grain.
