Through its Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU is continuing to deliver more than 1,800 tonnes of emergency aid to Ukraine to meet growing humanitarian needs as winter approaches, including energy, the European Commission announced on Thursday 17 November.
The shipments contain energy supplies, shelter items, first aid kits, protective clothing, firefighting equipment and water trucks which have been donated by Belgium, Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Luxembourg and Sweden - the latest contributors - in response to a request for assistance from Ukraine.
This additional aid brings to almost 75,000 tonnes the emergency supplies offered by the 31 countries participating in this European solidarity mechanism, the delivery of which is coordinated by the EU.
The first winterised temporary shelters were delivered to Ukraine and Moldova in October (see EUROPE 13047/4) and 500 electricity generators arrived in Kyiv in early November (see EUROPE 13058/17).
“Energy is our priority. Addressing humanitarian needs as winter approaches is our cardinal priority, following Russia’s systematic destruction of critical infrastructure which has severely damaged energy, heating, electricity and water facilities”, the Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, told the press.
These supplies, the transport of which is co-financed by the EU, are in addition to the €523 million in humanitarian aid funded by the EU budget since 24 February - out of a total of €1.5 billion if EU and Member States’ aid is combined.
France has announced that it will organise a conference on resilience in Ukraine on 13 December with international partners to mobilise winter equipment and repair infrastructure.
Given the scale of the need, “ all channels must be activated. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism is one of them, but it has the advantage of responding to specific requests and providing real-time information on what still needs to be delivered ", the Commissioner said.
The Ukrainian authorities submitted 117 requests for assistance or updated requests.
In the European Parliament on Thursday, MEPs from the Committee on Development (DEVE) expressed alarm at the humanitarian situation.
“On Tuesday, Russia fired about 100 missiles into Ukrainian cities, attacking critical infrastructure that plunged seven million Ukrainians into darkness. It is estimated that about 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure has been damaged, according to Ukrainian government assessments. This tactic of the Russian government is unacceptable “, said Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish). According to him, these attacks “have no military purpose and are only intended to terrorise the civilian population and increase their suffering”.
In the same vein, the representative of ECHO (the Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department) judged that “the humanitarian situation is worse than ever since the beginning of the crisis, with more and more people having no means of heating or protecting themselves as the temperatures become glacial”.
He said the recent release of Kherson was “ good news, also from a humanitarian point of view, which could also improve the situation in Nikolayev, which has been under constant bombardment for the past eight months”.
The population of Kherson is facing a shortage of water, electricity, food and medicine, the EU official said. ECHO’s humanitarian partners were able to organise a convoy very quickly which brought essential food supplies to 6,000 people in Kherson, and WFP distributed food aid to 100,000 people in the region. “But it will take a lot more aid”, he warned.
ECHO’s priorities for the whole country are shelter, emergency education, basic needs response, health care, water treatment and protection assistance. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)