Geneva (EFE).- United Nations agencies today launched a response plan to the humanitarian needs of Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, through which they request the international community 5,600 million dollars in order to assist in 2023 to 15 3 million Ukrainians.
The plan was presented today at a press conference in Geneva by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, and by the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, who underlined the growing needs of the European country.
Of the total amount, 3.9 billion dollars will be managed by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs directed by Griffiths, and the remaining 1.7 billion will go to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which with them hopes to care for 4 2 million Ukrainians who have fled to other European countries.
The United Nations estimates that the population in Ukraine has fallen from 43.3 to 35.6 million people because of the war, and that some 21.8 million Ukrainians inside and outside the country need humanitarian aid, so the plan response seeks to assist at least two thirds of this group.
Tenth package of sanctions against Russia
For her part, the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, also announced this Wednesday that the tenth package of sanctions against Russia that the European Union (EU) wants to approve coinciding with the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine will be worth 11 billion euros.
The sanctions the EU is discussing include restrictions on the export of “multiple electronic components” needed in Russia’s weapons systems, such as drones, missiles and helicopters.
The EC has also proposed sanctioning the Iranian companies linked to the Revolutionary Guard that make the drones that Tehran is giving to Moscow to bomb Ukraine.
“It is our duty to sanction them,” said Von der Leyen in a speech in the European Parliament on the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine, which will take place on February 24.
This new package also foresees, as EFE was able to learn, including some 140 individuals -among others, the military and those responsible for the crimes being committed in Ukraine- and some thirty Russian companies on the list of sanctions.
The ambassadors of the Twenty-seven to the EU will once again discuss the new sanctions in Brussels today, which the European Commission has been discussing with the Member States for weeks.
(Russian President Vladimir) “Putin thought it would be easy to blackmail Europe, given our dependence on Russian oil and gas. But he was wrong about that too”, Von der Leyen said, adding that “he has already lost the energy war that he started”.
