Portugal will help Ukraine with generators, heaters and lamps
The “Solidarity with Ukraine” conference, organized today in Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron and in which Cravinho participated, created the Paris Mechanism, for enhanced coordination of international aid to Ukraine, aiming to allocate the aid given to this country more effectively and better distribution on the ground.
“We are going to contribute to the new coordination mechanism with generators, heaters and trying to respond to a new request from President Zelensky, who is asking for 50 million LED lamps to reduce electricity consumption, we will try to respond to that request. Portugal will continue to do its part”, assured the Portuguese minister.
Thus, the Government is now proceeding to identify Portuguese suppliers of generators to send to Ukraine, with 650 heaters ready to go now and another 1,000 per month from February, as well as LED lamps that consume less and will help Ukraine saving energy.
The minister also recalled the Portuguese promise of 250 million euros in aid, an “unprecedented” amount for the Portuguese scale, with an additional 30 million euros to support Ukrainian refugees arriving in Poland.
The Paris initiative is expected to raise more than 400 million euros in assistance to Kiev.
The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, who intervened via videoconference, asked the 46 heads of state and representatives present in Paris for around 800 million euros so that his country can face the cold of winter.
This money will be used to purchase gas, but also to repair the damage to the energy system caused by the consecutive Russian bombings.
The military offensive launched on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 14 million people — 6.5 million internally displaced and more than 7.8 million to European countries –, according to the most Recent UN data classify this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
Right now, 17.7 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian aid and 9.3 million recipients of food aid and housing.
The Russian invasion — justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security — was condemned by the international community in general, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing to Russia to support political and economic policies.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 6,755 dead civilians and 10,607 wounded, underlining that these numbers are far below the real ones.