President of the United States Joe Biden has said he had informed President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky that the U.S. is providing another $1 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, the White House reported on Wednesday.
“I informed President Zelensky that the United States is providing another $1 billion in security assistance for Ukraine,” Biden said in the statement posted on the website of the White House.
Biden also said that the assistance includes “additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for the artillery and advanced rocket systems.”
The U.S. remains committed to supporting the Ukrainian people whose lives have been ripped apart by this war, Biden said.
“Today, I am also announcing an additional $225 million in humanitarian assistance to help people inside Ukraine, including by supplying safe drinking water, critical medical supplies and health care, food, shelter, and cash for families to purchase essential items,” the U.S. president said.
The Club of Experts YouTube channel has released a new video dedicated to the prospects for the development of the volunteer movement in Ukraine after the start of the war and solving the main problems that our citizens may face when bringing humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
According to Maxim Urakin, the founder of the Club of Experts, the humanitarian situation that arose in Ukraine after the outbreak of hostilities forced tens of thousands of people to volunteer.
“At the same time, many people faced with the incomprehensibility of the processes of crossing the border and importing certain goods into the country,” the expert emphasized.
In his commentary, the head of the International Technology Transfer Association (ITTA), Artem Goncharenko, noted that when organizing volunteer assistance, one should understand what needs the recipients of volunteer assistance have. At the same time, in his opinion, individual and general requests of both military and ordinary citizens should be distributed.
“It is important to understand that we cannot offer a single universal solution. Need a personal approach (…). At the same time, different volunteer organizations should unite to improve the coordination of work,” he said.
In turn, Evgenia Litvinova, Chair of the Ukrainian Exporters’ Club, analyzed the latest legislative changes that have greatly simplified the delivery of international humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
In their presentation, the experts provided a detailed explanation on the following problematic issues:
– Who has the right to bring humanitarian aid to Ukraine?
– On the basis of what documents can humanitarian aid be imported?
– What changes have been introduced when filling out customs declarations?
– What shipping documents do you need to have when crossing the border?
For more details, see the video on the YouTube channel “Expert Club” at the link:
EXPERT CLUB, GONCHARENKO, HUMANITARIAN AID, IMPORT, LITVINOVA, URAKIN
Since the beginning of the war, Ukrzaliznytsia has transported more than 100,000 tonnes of humanitarian cargo by rail in passenger, freight cars and containers, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the company’s board, said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.
“Volunteers came to the first evacuation trains, which we used to transport our citizens from the east to the west, and brought humanitarian aid. Food, clothes, medicines. They loaded all this into passenger cars and the trains rushed back to the east,” he wrote.
Thus, in passenger cars, according to him, since the beginning of the war, transported more than 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid. There were days when 700 tonnes of humanitarian aid per day were transported in passenger cars.
“And then we brought humanitarian aid in freight wagons and containers. And our foreign partners have already joined here, first of all from Poland, and then from other countries. And as of today, we have already transported more than 5,000 freight wagons with humanitarian aid. Since the beginning of the war, we have transported over 100,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid by rail in passenger, freight wagons and containers,” Kamyshin said.
Ukrainian volunteers are faced with the problem of bringing humanitarian aid into the country, representatives of volunteer organizations have said during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
“Now there are enough donors on the territory of the European Union who are interested in providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but they need the Ukrainian side to take it. Because of this, Ukrainian public organizations refuse humanitarian aid or transfer it to other organizations, as they cannot cover the cost logistics component of the delivery,” Head of the Ukrainian Exporters Club Yevhenia Lytvynova said.
Commenting on the transfer of thermal imagers and quadrocopters to Ukraine, she noted that such goods require a letter of guarantee from the end user, the author of which can only be a military command body of the Ministry of Defense or another military formation.
In turn, Head of the International Technology Transfer Association (ITTA) Artem Honcharenko said that the Ukrainian army today needs medicines, in particular hemostatic drugs, as well as drugs against ulcers, diarrhea, dysbacteriosis, and a runny nose.
He stressed that there is currently a strong demand for anthelmintic drugs, flea, tick, mosquito and antifungal drugs. In addition, the Ukrainian army requires basic medicines such as paracetamol, ibuprofen, as well as syringes, bandages and elastic bandages.
In turn, Director of the Center of the Academy of Construction of Ukraine Ivan Perehinets announced plans to create an international fund Ukraine to finance the construction of houses for people who lost their homes due to the Russian invasion.
“More than a million families were left without housing… We are now in the process of registering the Ukraine International Construction Fund, which will deal with the construction of houses,” Perehinets said.
In turn, Head of the International Relations Department of Kontramarka Help Oleksiy Honcharov announced plans to purchase a mobile field hospital.
“We are currently working on a mobile hospital that can drive close enough to the front line, deploy in a matter of minutes and provide full first aid,” Honcharov said.
According to him, such a field hospital was found in Turkey and funds are being collected for its subsequent purchase. The hospital is partly financed by charitable contributions from concerts held, most organized with the support of Kontramarka.
President of the Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils Serhiy Chernov said that on February 15, based on information from foreign colleagues and Ukrainian intelligence, the association decided to create a coordination center to assist local governments in providing humanitarian assistance, studying all possible consequences of hostilities, and working with religious denominations and preparation of documents “on the destruction caused by the Russian Federation, as well as compensation for losses.”
Restaurateur and volunteer Maryan Burmylo announced cooperation with the United States. “Ukrainian volunteers from California organized charitable assistance to medical institutions in Ukraine. Odesa residents Natalia Hryschenko and Oleksiy Buyadzhy (UkrainCA public initiative), with the help of the Mission to Ukraine team, arranged the supply of medicines at the expense of American funds of Cincinnati and Baltimore – sister cities of Ukrainian Kharkiv and Odesa. Aid in the form of the supply of surgical kits is provided by the International Surgical Health Initiative (ISHI, the USA),” he said.
BUYADZHY, CHERNOV, HONCHARENKO, HONCHAROV, HUMANITARIAN AID, PEREHINETS, URAKIN, VOLUNTEERS, ЛИТВИНОВА
Over the past week, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine received 73 tonnes of medical supplies as humanitarian aid from charitable organizations, the press service of the Ministry of Health reported on Monday.
It is specified that over the past week, 16 tonnes of analgesics, 1.5 tonnes of antibacterial drugs, 16.5 tonnes of cancer drugs, 30 tonnes of dressings and other medical products, 8.5 tonnes of medicines for various purposes and 500 kg of corticosteroids have been received from various donors and charitable organizations.
In addition, charities donated five ambulances, 100 refrigerators, eight telemedicine systems, 10,700 personal first aid kits, 2,000 hemostatic agents to stop bleeding, 22,000 bandages and 8,500 tourniquets.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, in a phone conversation with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, discussed the threats to Ukraine, the right to self-defense and the importance of humanitarian assistance from Israel.
“Had a phone conversation with Minister of Defence of Israel Benny Gantz. We discussed existential threats to Ukraine and the right to self-defense. Among other things, the importance of humanitarian aid from Israel’s side has been discussed. Thank you for the support!” Reznikov said on his Twitter.
