The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced yesterday a new contribution of seven million euros to Ukraine to equip shelters in schools, provide mobile clinics for newborns and care for victims of sexual violence and the shipment of 24 tons of humanitarian aid for those affected by the shelling of the Kakhovka dam.
Albares made this announcement during his intervention by videoconference at the second International Conference on Ukraine Recovery (UCR 2023), which is being held from yesterday until today in London and in which the director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), Antón Leis, and representatives of a dozen Spanish companies are participating in person on the Spanish side.
In the video, the minister assures that Spain will “continue to support the Ukrainian authorities for as long as necessary” and recalls that our country has already contributed 250 million euros for the recovery of Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, in February 2022. This assistance, he continued, includes “a new commitment of seven million euros that I am announcing today to equip schools for refugees, support victims of sexual violence and provide mobile clinics for newborns.”
Specifically, AECID’s Humanitarian Action Office plans to allocate an additional seven million euros to Ukraine to equip shelters in Ukrainian schools in collaboration with UNICEF (1.5 million euros), support for sexual and maternal and child health through the purchase of 30 mobile incubators to save the lives of babies born prematurely, especially in the recently liberated areas, and support for women victims of sexual violence in Kherson and Kharkiv, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, 1.8 million euros).
This item also includes contributions to the humanitarian appeals of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA, 1.2 million), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, ‘1 million) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC, ‘1.5 million), focusing on protection and support for victims, displaced persons and refugees.
Albares also announced yesterday the shipment of 24 tons of humanitarian aid to assist those affected by the bombing of the Kakhovka dam (specifically, water, sanitation and hygiene and shelter, which will be distributed in Ukraine over the next few days in collaboration with the European Civil Protection Mechanism, according to AECID) and assured that Spanish companies are willing to “contribute their experience” in areas such as water and sanitation, infrastructure and energy “hand in hand with Ukrainian businessmen”.
On June 6, a Russian attack destroyed the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine. 22 settlements with more than 843 houses were completely flooded and 2,783 people had to be evacuated from this area. In addition, the bursting of the dam has left more than 700,000 people without access to drinking water and compromised the normal operation of the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant and endangered more than 600,000 hectares of crops.
With these new actions, according to AECID, Spanish humanitarian action in Ukraine will exceed 46 million euros this year, since the new response program joins the almost 39 million euros contributed last year by the Government, Autonomous Communities and local authorities. This figure is the largest humanitarian response in emergencies for a single country in the history of Spanish Cooperation.
The conference
The London conference -organized by the United Kingdom and Ukraine and bringing together a thousand participants including political leaders, businessmen and representatives of civil society from 60 countries- included the telematic participation of the Ukrainian President, Volodymir Zelenski, who assured that his government has undertaken internal reforms with the aim of offering “the confidence” needed by foreign investors to contribute to the reconstruction of his country.
According to World Bank (WB) estimates, the cost of the reconstruction of Ukraine amounted, one year after the beginning of the war, to 411 billion dollars (376 billion euros), while the investment needs for 2023 are about 14 billion (12.81 billion euros). Separately, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has asked the WB for help in assessing the damage caused by the “horrible terrorist attack perpetrated by Russian forces” on the Kakhovka dam in the south, and announced that Ukraine has drawn up a five-stage plan to set priorities and ensure a “transparent” investment process.
For his part, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged the private sector to take advantage of the investment opportunities that exist in Ukraine “even now” and warned that “Russia must pay” for the destruction caused by the war, but to do so, he warned, it is necessary for governments and businesses to drive the country’s recovery and commit to investing “at the right time.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed with Sunak that, despite the efforts of several countries and financial institutions, “only the private sector can mobilize the level of investment necessary to meet Ukraine’s needs” and to enable it to “prosper as an independent country fully integrated into the European Union”.
