International UN High Commissioner for Refugees announces new aid for Ukraine

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has announced a new aid package of 100 million US dollars (around 93 million euros) during a visit to Ukraine. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is thus supporting preparations for the winter and will continue to stand by the government in Kiev to help Ukrainians who have been displaced or otherwise affected by the war, Grandi said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Kiev. The aid organization also wants to mobilize funds in the future to support the country attacked by Russia.

Selensky expressed his thanks for the aid, which was urgently needed in view of the destruction to the energy infrastructure caused by the Russian attacks. At the same time, according to a statement from the President's Office, he emphasized that the country needed further help to rebuild destroyed houses and set up shelters in schools and hospitals. This would give the Ukrainians who had fled the country the security of being able to return home.

Grandi has already visited Ukraine for the fifth time since the start of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, 2022. He also visited the children's hospital in Kiev, which was hit by a missile attack, as he announced on the social network X. "No place should be better protected than a children's hospital. Yet it was hit by a rocket on July 8," he said.

According to UNHCR figures, there are around 9.7 million people displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, around 6 million of them abroad. Many people have fled from the particularly embattled east and south of Ukraine, where Russian troops have occupied large parts of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. In some places, entire towns have been completely destroyed.