Estonia allocates over €510,000 in winter aid for Ukraine
Estonia will help internally displaced people (IDPs) prepare for the coming winter in Ukraine after Russia destroyed around 80 percent of the country's energy infrastructure.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave €513,660 to its strategic humanitarian aid partners Mondo and the Estonian Refugee Council which are working in Ukraine.
Mondo will receive €235,921 to repair and insulate a shelter for IDPs in Kharkiv, to provide heating devices, solid fuel and generators to 17 shelters in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
The NGO will also provide medicines, diapers, and formula to a shelter for Ukrainian refugees in Georgia.
The €277,739 allocated to the Estonian Refugee Council will be given as financial aid to Ukraine's civilians and IDPs, to cover the winter maintenance costs of animal keepers and to cover the winter costs of Ukrainian refugees in Georgia.
"Since the beginning of this year, Russia has systematically destroyed Ukraine's energy infrastructure," Estonian Ambassador to Ukraine Annely Kolk said in a statement. "The only objective of these targeted attacks is to cause human suffering and deaths."
Kolk added that as Russia's attacks continue, Ukraine is heading for a very difficult winter without electricity, heating and water.
"The war in Ukraine is raging on not only on the front, it is also in people's homes. If people do not have electricity in the dead of winter, they also do not have water or heating," she underlined.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) said supporting Ukraine continues to be Estonia's priority.
"In many cases, war refugees have had to leave their homes repeatedly and the coming winter will be extremely difficult for them," he said.
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Editor: Helen Wright