The new Paris Mechanism will help coordinate aid to Ukraine

A new mechanism for coordinating international aid to Ukraine was announced today (13) in Paris, with France pledging an additional 125 million euros in support of Kiev. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is asking for at least 800 million for the winter.

“We need help to arrive in concrete form and we need greater coordination so that it arrives in a timely manner. Therefore, we can announce today an enhanced mechanism for the coordination of international aid, the Paris Mechanism, which is based on the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. And which will be extended to all countries that wish to Help “, announced Emmanuel Macron at the opening of the Conference of Solidarity with the Ukrainian People this morning.

The French president should have opened the meeting, stating that by attacking civilian buildings that keep Ukrainians warm during the winter, “Russia is committing intolerable war crimes,” and the priority now is to get the necessary aid to the region.

In a speech from Kiev, via videoconference, Zelensky announced that Ukraine needed at least 800 million euros for the winter, an amount that would be used in part to supply gas.

According to the president, there are currently 12 million people in the suburbs of Kiev without heating, and also to save gas, cuts are going on. He also demanded “generators, transformers, gas turbines, impellers” and other mechanisms to replace what was destroyed by the daily Russian bombing.

France announced additional aid of about 125 million euros to Ukraine, of which 48 million is direct aid to the population and 73 million euros is aid for the purchase of energy. Paris will also send 63 new births to Ukraine.

The total aid, collected from among the 46 countries present at the conference and 24 international organizations, has already reached 400 million euros.

In response to a direct appeal from Zelensky, who said that an important part of subsidizing the power grid was to replace all light bulbs in Ukrainian homes with LEDs, which consume less energy, the European Union, through the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, promised that among the 50 million euros needed for this exchange, 30 million will be financed.

In the afternoon, Ukraine will remain at the top of the agenda with a new meeting – the Franco-Ukrainian Conference on Resilience and Reconstruction, organized by the French Minister of Finance and Economy Bruno Le Maire.

Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelensky will open this meeting, followed by a series of discussions on how French companies can help Ukraine, particularly in the environmental and digital sectors.

Russia’s February 24 military offensive in Ukraine has already caused more than 14 million people to flee – 6.5 million internally displaced and more than 7.8 million to European countries – according to the latest data from the United Nations, which ranks the refugee crisis as Europe’s worst since the war. The Second World (1939-1945).

Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food and shelter aid.

The international community condemned the Russian invasion – which Russian President Vladimir Putin justified by the need to “discredit Ukraine” and disarm it for Russia’s security, responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.

The United Nations recorded, since the beginning of the war, 6,755 civilian deaths and 10,607 wounded, but remember that these numbers are far from reality.

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