In light of the soaring humanitarian needs in Ukraine, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič recently visited the Eastern Europe country to meet with humanitarian organisations and high-level Ukrainian government officials to help co-ordinate the EU’s crisis response on the ground.
On this occasion, the EU has allocated an extra €205m in humanitarian assistance, bringing the total EU humanitarian aid funding in response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine to €348m, of which €13m goes for projects in neighbouring Moldova to support displaced people arriving in the country.
EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, said: “In this moment of crisis, our duty is to stand by the most vulnerable. We have swiftly responded by considerably scaling up our presence in Ukraine. With this funding our humanitarian partners are providing food, water, healthcare, shelter, protection and cash assistance.
“We are also working closely with the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the assistance provided by the EU Member States is aligned with the constantly evolving needs. Through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, we have delivered millions of lifesaving supplies to Ukrainians, and we are committed to support Ukraine as long as it takes.”
The EU has mobilised all possible resources to support getting aid into Ukraine, which includes the largest-ever mobilisation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. All 27 Member States, as well as Turkey, Norway and North Macedonia, have provided over 38,000 tonnes of aid including first aid kits, food, PPE and strategic equipment like fire trucks, mobile hospitals and energy supplies to be delivered to Ukraine with a financial value of €373m.
Given the scale of this operation, the EU has established logistics hubs in neighbouring Poland, Romania and Slovakia to expedite the deliveries, while two EU funded humanitarian warehouses and logistics operations have also been set up in Ukraine.
Over 500 patients from Ukraine in need of continued treatment or urgent medical assistance have also been transferred to European hospitals through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism from Ukraine, Moldova and bordering countries.
Ireland is one of the destination countries, which also includes Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania and Sweden.
