Ukraine and the UN plan to expand cooperation on humanitarian assistance programs for Ukrainians. This was stated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal following a meeting with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

“The UN has provided USD 4.5 billion of humanitarian support to Ukrainians this year, and we are working to increase this figure next year. Our main task now is to get through the most difficult winter period in our history. Currently, 12 million people in Ukraine are daily experiencing an acute shortage of electricity or a complete lack of power supply for several days. Therefore, we are grateful to all partners, in particular the UN, for the provision of energy equipment that allows us to return light to the homes of Ukrainians,” the Prime Minister of Ukraine noted.

According to Denys Shmyhal, in the humanitarian sphere Ukraine and the UN plan to actively cooperate in the following areas:

• Continuation of direct financial assistance to internally displaced persons, which is now carried out jointly with UN agencies.
• Further arrangement of shelters for IDPs and creating conditions for their accommodation in winter.
• Implementation of programs to restore housing damaged by the war.
• Providing humanitarian assistance in de-occupied territories, and to population evacuated from the areas of intense hostilities.
• Supporting people who remain in the area of active hostilities.
• Support for small and medium-sized businesses, whose resilience is crucial for Ukraine’s economy.
• Intensification of humanitarian demining programs, including the launch of new demining programs in Ukraine.

Denys Shmyhal also noted that Ukraine calls on partners to support the proposal to expand the Grain Initiative to the ports of Mykolaiv and Olvia. Over the past 4.5 months, 554 vessels with 13.9 million tonnes of Ukrainian food have already been shipped within the framework of the Grain Initiative to the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe.

In turn, the UN Under-Secretary-General said that the organization is willing to help the Government of Ukraine to restart the economy, bring the private sector back on its feet and increase the number of jobs. In addition, Martin Griffiths emphasized the importance of implementing demining programs and assisting Ukrainians in the frontline communities in order to bring life back there.