UNHCR to allocate $30 million to support Ukraine's front-line areas in winter
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will allocate $30 million to support Ukraine's front-line areas during this winter, the Reintegration Ministry said on Aug. 21.
The funds are part of a large aid package worth $100 million announced by UNHCR Filippo Grandi in July.
Ukraine's Ministry of Reintegration and the UNHCR signed on Aug. 21 a memorandum of support for front-line Ukrainian communities during this winter.
According to the document, some residents of Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and Chernihiv oblasts will receive one-time payments of Hr 21,000 ($508) to buy solid fuel. The money will be devoted to households located within 10 kilometers of the contact line or the border with Russia, the ministry said.
"For UNHCR, the priority is to support people who remain in the front-line regions during the winter months, which are likely to be particularly difficult this year given the targeted attacks on energy infrastructure," said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR representative in Ukraine.
"These people are in an incredibly vulnerable socio-economic situation and therefore most in need of humanitarian aid to survive and maintain their resilience."
Russia carried out a massive campaign of aerial attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure over the spring, similar to the one launched during the fall and winter of 2022-23. The damage caused a serious energy deficit and necessitated rolling blackouts across the country.
The UNHCR warned in late May that humanitarian aid for Ukraine is falling as its needs only increase. The U.N. has a humanitarian plan for Ukraine that requires $3.1 billion this year, including $599 million for the UNHCR.
Dinara Khalilova
