You're reading: Japan provides $8.2 million grant to Ukraine

Ukraine and Japan have agreed on the provision of an $8.2 million grant to Ukraine, including $4.2 million to buy medical equipment for Ukrainian hospitals.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the agreement (in the form of an exchange of notes) between the Ukrainian and Japanese governments was signed on March 30 in Kyiv by Deputy Prime Minister and Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry of Ukraine Hennadiy Zubko, Health Minister of Ukraine Alexander Kvitashvili, and Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Shigeki Sumi.

“I have the honor to sign the agreement between Japan and Ukraine on the provision of $8.2 million: $4.2 million of the funds will be sent to the Health Ministry, and the rest of the funds will be distributed between three ministries – education, agriculture and interior,” Sumi said.

He said that the funds are being provided to support Ukraine which faces two serious challenges today, the preservation of national sovereignty and integrity, and the conducting of effective economic reforms and fighting corruption.

Sumi said that last year Japan provided aid worth $1.84 billion and provided technical aid to fight corruption and to hold fair elections.

Zubko thanked Japan for the consistent aid is has provided since 1986, after the Chornobyl disaster, and said that the funds will go to hospitals in Luhansk and Donetsk regions to buy equipment.

“The money which the Japanese government provides today to Ukraine is a non-repayable grant to be sent to buy those Japanese goods – medical equipment, tools and devices – which will help our municipal companies to improve their physical infrastructure to do work using those life-support systems Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv or Zaporizhia regions have… This is equipment that we want to send to the Luhansk regional hospital, which was transferred from Luhansk to Severodonetsk,” Zubko said.