LONDON, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain is releasing another $100 million to help Ukraine, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced and promised fresh efforts to rally international opinion against Russia’s invasion.
The $100 million, to be provided via the World Bank, is in addition to the 220 million pound ($290 mln) of overall aid support to Ukraine, said a statement from Downing Street.
The new funding will go towards keeping key state functions operating, it added.
“While only (Russian President Vladimir) Putin can fully end the suffering in Ukraine, today’s new funding will continue to help those facing the deteriorating humanitarian situation,” said Johnson.
The British leader will on Monday receive the Dutch and Canadian prime ministers, Mark Rutte and Justin Trudeau and they will visit a Royal Air Force base before holding a joint news conference.
On Tuesday, Johnson will meet the leaders of the four Visegrad countries, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This week’s meetings are part of a six-point plan that Johnson’s office unveiled on Saturday designed to ensure Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fails.
PARIS: France is to send medical aid to Ukraine including iodine tablets, which help protect against the effects of exposure to radiation, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday.
“Yes, we have sent different medical products,” Le Drian told France 2 television in response to a question on the sending of the tablets.
Earlier Sunday, France’s ambassador in Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins, told BMFTV that 2.5 million doses were to be sent to Ukraine in the coming days.
Le Drian said French President Emmanuel Macron had contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin early Sunday to raise the issue of nuclear safety.
Macron had expressed his “serious concern” for the safety of Romania nuclear sites after Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Friday.
Putin had said he was ready to respect IAEA norms for the protection of power stations and agreed to open talks with the agency, the French presidency told the media.
Macron’s view — and that of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — was that Russia had to accept Ukrainian sovereignty over its own power stations for the safety not just of Ukraine but the whole of Europe, said Le Drian.
The IAEA governors hold their quarterly meeting on Monday in Vienna and the agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi is due to speak to the press early in the afternoon. — NNN-AGENCIES
