WASHINGTON — Ukraine is getting an extra $1.7 billion in help from the US authorities and the World Financial institution to pay the salaries of its beleaguered well being care staff and supply different important companies.
The cash coming Tuesday from the US Company for Worldwide Growth, the Treasury Division and the World Financial institution is supposed to alleviate the acute funds deficit brought on by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal warfare of aggression,” USAID stated in a press release.
Whereas many medical staffers have left Ukraine, some hospitals have shut down and different hospitals have been bombed. The well being staff who stay in Ukraine do their jobs underneath direct circumstances.
Viktor Liashko, Ukraine’s minister of well being, stated paying well being staff’ salaries is turning into tougher every month “because of the overwhelming burden of warfare.”
“$1.7 billion is not only one more monetary help; it’s an funding that makes us a step nearer to victory,” Liashko stated in a press release.
Up to now, USAID has given $4 billion in budgetary help to the Ukrainian authorities. These funds have been used for maintaining fuel and electrical energy flowing to hospitals and faculties, getting humanitarian provides to residents and paying the salaries of civil servants and lecturers, the group stated.
USAID Administrator Samantha Energy stated that as Putin’s “assault on Ukraine’s public companies continues, the US is speeding in with monetary help to assist the federal government preserve the lights on, present important companies to harmless residents and pay the well being care staff who’re offering lifesaving help on the frontlines.”
Final week, the Biden administration stated it’ll ship one other $400 million in navy gear to Ukraine, the fifteenth bundle of navy weapons and gear transferred to Ukraine from Protection Division shares since final August.
This new set of funds will likely be used for humanitarian functions.
“This assist will assist Ukraine’s democratic authorities present important companies for the individuals of Ukraine,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated in a written assertion.
Yellen stated the cash would “attain those that want it most on the entrance strains of Putin’s brutal and unlawful warfare.”
General, the US has despatched about $7.3 billion in assist to Ukraine for the reason that warfare started in late February.