The budget of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for the provision of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine has been increased to 250 million Swiss francs, the organization’s president, Peter Maurer, said.
“Some 75 million Swiss francs until February 24 (Russian invasion of Ukraine) per year was the approximate budget of the International Committee of the Red Cross for Ukraine. We asked our donors for 150 million Swiss francs. As a result, now our budget for Ukraine is 250 million Swiss francs. Then there are donors who are very generous in everything related to the situation in Ukraine, and this will allow us to expand our activities,” Maurer said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine and the Ukraine 24 TV Channel.
According to him, the ICRC’s humanitarian operation in Ukraine is the largest in the world in recent decades.
“Just for comparison: before the escalation in Ukraine, the largest Red Cross operations were carried out in Afghanistan, Syria. That is, with a budget of 180-190 million. Now Ukraine is our largest operation in the world,” he said.
Maurer also noted that the ICRC has already delivered 200 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and is ready to start distributing it.
Among other types of support, he named the intention of the organization to locally purchase goods and receive services, to support the economy. The president of the humanitarian organization also said that he had agreed with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on the implementation of a cash support scheme for the country, similar to the one during the COVID-19 crisis.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu paid a visit to Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said.
“Welcomed my Turkish counterpart and friend Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ukraine. Turkey’s solidarity remains unwavering. Grateful for political and humanitarian support, as well as Turkey’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to put an end to Russia’s devastating war against Ukraine,” Kuleba said on Twitter on Thursday.
Since February 24, 1.9 million people have left Ukraine for Poland, the Polish Border Guard Service has said.
“Since February 24, some 1.95 million people have arrived from Ukraine to Poland. Yesterday, March 16, border guards registered 60,000 people, a decrease of 11%,” the border guard said in a statement on Thursday.
Pumping capacity via the Ukrainian gas-transit corridor has remained at yesterday’s level for European consumers.
“Gazprom is supplying Russian gas for transit via Ukraine as usual as per the bookings of European consumers at 94.6 million cubic meters on March 17,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told reporters.
According to the data of the Gas Transmission System (GTS) Operator of Ukraine, the nomination for March 17 is 95 million cubic meters, and bookings for March 16 totaled 94.5 million cubic meters.
The Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which pumps gas through Belarus and Poland to Germany, switched to reverse mode on Tuesday and will continue pumping gas from Germany to Poland on Wednesday. Gazprom did not book any capacity along the Polish section of the pipeline either for the regular session or for the additional night session. Gas supplies from Germany to Poland, meaning off-take of additional volumes from the main European hubs, are another component of the current high prices in the EU.
Electricity generation from renewable sources is declining once again this week. The contribution of wind generation to the energy balance of Europe averaged 17% for the week of March 7 to 13; on Monday, and it has averaged 12% over the three days of this week, according to data from the WindEurope association. The weather forecast for the next few days should be calm.
Real Madrid Football Club will donate EUR1 million as part of the Everyone with Ukraine campaign, which was launched by the Real Madrid Foundation on March 5 to help meet the humanitarian needs of displaced people in Ukraine, together with other international non-governmental organizations.
The Spanish club said on Wednesday the aid will be sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNHCR, as well as to the fund’s partner in Ukraine, the public organization Epicentr for Children for children and to support the reception of refugees in Spain.
Among the places in Ukraine where this aid will go, Real named Chernivtsi, Kryvy Rih and more than ten Salesian missions in Lviv, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr regions and Odesa.
Real Madrid recalled that it has been working with Epicentr for Children since 2018 in seven social sports schools in the cities of Ternopil, Irpin, Khmelnytsky and Kyiv, and now this program covers 800 children.
“The Real Madrid Foundation’s “Everyone with Ukraine” campaign will continue as long as necessary to provide a direct donation channel that helps provide for the needs of the displaced population both in Ukraine and in the bordering countries as well as welcoming refugees in Spain,” the report says.
The United Nations Refugee Agency reported that since February 24, more than 3 million people have been forced to leave the country and at least 2 million more have become internally displaced persons within the country. The agency indicated that in just over two weeks, companies, foundations and philanthropists contributed more than $200 million to the emergency response in Ukraine, out of the $510 million requested for primary emergency care.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the EU members for completing the synchronization of the Ukrainian and European power systems.
“Ukraine has become a member of the Energy Union. The unification of Ukrainian & European energy systems has been completed. Now Ukrainian electricity flows in the EU & vice versa. Grateful to EU members, personally to Ursula von der Leyen, Kadri Simson & everyone, thanks to whom we now have a single energy system!” Zelensky said on Twitter.
ENERGY UNION, EUROPEAN POWER SYSTEMS, MEMBER, SYNCHRONIZATION, UKRAINE
