With the Russian offensive in Ukraine continuing and more than 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees counted by the UNHCR on Friday 4 March, the EU is stepping up its coordination of humanitarian aid through its civil protection mechanism and by increasing the number of logistics hubs to deliver urgently needed aid to the victims of the war.
Additional aid will be provided to Ukraine from RescEU medical stockpiles based in Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands, the Commission announced on Friday.
This includes ventilators, infusion pumps, monitors, masks, gowns, ultrasound machines and oxygen concentrators.
In addition, three logistics platforms will be used to distribute the aid. One is already operational in Poland, which is hosting more than half of the refugees, and others are being set up in Romania and Slovakia.
They will channel the aid provided by 27 European countries through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (26 EU countries and Norway) in response to the Ukrainian authorities’ request for assistance a fortnight ago - food, medicines, tents, sanitary equipment, electricity generators (see EUROPE 12902/5).
Moldova, Slovakia and Poland, the host countries for Ukrainian refugees, also received significant assistance after activating the EU’s civil protection mechanism. Greece, Austria and Germany donated masks, disinfectants, bedding, tents and clothing to Slovakia.
Teams of European civil protection experts are also on their way to Moldova and Poland to help the authorities cover the needs of the refugees. Aid from the Netherlands, France and Greece was delivered to Moldova on 3 March, while Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Croatian aid is on its way, the Commission said on 4 March.
Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčic, who visited Poland on 2 March and Moldova on 3 March to show the EU’s solidarity, thanked the authorities of these countries and their citizens “who are welcoming refugees and trying to help”. Adding: “Our hope is that this unjustified military aggression will stop”.
“Humanitarian corridors, which ensure the free and safe movement of civilians and the delivery of humanitarian aid, are among the essential preconditions for meeting the needs of the population in Ukraine, which is the biggest victim of this war. It is imperative that civilians are protected and that humanitarian workers are able to do their work safely and unhindered, as required by international humanitarian law”, he said in a statement on Friday. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)