On 14 November, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania allocated 175 thousand litas in humanitarian assistance to the residents of eastern Ukraine who have been affected by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The funds will be transferred to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which provides emergency humanitarian assistance to the forcibly displaced people and the people who have lost their place of residence in Ukraine.
This year Lithuania has already allocated 709 thousand litas in humanitarian help to Ukraine. This assistance consisted of the aids necessary to ensure the minimum living conditions for the residents of Ukraine transferred from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, treatment of the wounded in Lithuania, as well as the funds allocated to the transfer of the children who were affected by the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine to attend schools in Lithuania in 2014-2015 school year.
According to the data presented by the United Nations agencies, during the past half a year, the number of people affected by the conflict in Ukraine who needed emergency humanitarian assistance totals about 5.2 million. Among them, the forcefully displaced people and people who have lost their place of residence account for 450 thousand, and the number of refugees to the neighbouring states amounts to almost 500 thousand. With winter approaching, the need for humanitarian assistance is becoming ever more desperate.
