(Washington) The World Bank’s Board of Directors on Monday approved an immediate additional assistance package for Ukraine dubbed “Ukraine Economic Emergency Recovery Funding” or “Free Ukraine,” with a disbursement immediate $489 million.
Posted at 7:59 p.m.
1er March, the Washington institution had announced that it was preparing emergency aid of three billion dollars for Ukraine, of which at least 350 million were to be released immediately.
Its board of directors therefore decided to disburse a larger amount on Monday.
“The arrangement approved by the Board consists of an additional loan of 350 million dollars and guarantees for an amount of 139 million dollars”, detailed the World Bank in a press release.
“The fast-disbursing aid will help the government provide essential services to Ukrainians, including salaries for hospital workers, pensions for the elderly and social programs for vulnerable people,” the institution said.
In addition, grant funding of $134 million and parallel funding of $100 million were approved.
Thus, in total, 723 million dollars have been mobilized.
The World Bank has specified that the Netherlands and Sweden are putting their hands in the pot, respectively up to 89 million dollars and 50 million dollars.
The World Bank says it has also set up “a multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) to facilitate the flow of donor grants to Ukraine, with contributions from the UK, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and of Iceland in the amount of $134 million to date”.
It calls on its members for other grants to feed this fund.
In 12 days of war, hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands more injured in Ukraine.
More than 1.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, more than half of whom have been welcomed in Poland, according to the latest UN counts.