Meeting attended by 46 countries and 24 international organizations raised material and finances to help Ukraine prepare for winter after its infrastructure has been damaged by Russian attacks
An international conference hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron was organized in Paris on Tuesday, December 13, to raise aid for Ukraine. The gathering included politicians from 46 countries along with over 24 international companies and aid agencies, according to a report in the Associated Press.
The donor conference successfully managed to raise over €1 billion worth of material and finances which have been pledged to “keep Ukraine powered, fed, warm and moving amid the onset of winter”, the report said.
Macron while hosting the event said, “Russia has chosen a cynical strategy, aiming to destroy civilian infrastructure in order to put Ukraine on its knees”. He further added, “The objective is clear, respond to military defeats by spreading terror among civilians, try to break the back as it can’t maintain the front.” He also said that Russia has been attacking civilian infrastructure due to setbacks suffered by its troops during the war, which has “exposed their military weakness”.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also attended the conference via a video link. Zelenskyy while addressing the conference said, “12 million Ukrainians — roughly one-quarter of the country’s pre-invasion population — are living with power outages stemming from Russian bombardments”. According to the report, he further said that international efforts to help keep Ukraine running its utility system could “help dissuade Moscow from further attacks and potentially force it to the negotiating table, and also prevent new waves of Ukrainians fleeing to elsewhere in Europe”, the report stated.
After presenting a long list of Ukraine’s immediate requirements, Zelenskyy, said the country needs ´electricity generators as urgently as it also needs armored vehicles and armored vests for its troops´, the report said.
Everything from lightbulbs, generators and power transformers to assistance with food, water, health, transport and rebuilding has been arranged, the report said, by the donors to help Ukraine.
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