NATO to sponsor pilot project preventing floods in western Ukraine

June 21, 2001 at 15:00
KYIV, June 20 - NATO will donate more than $90,000 for a multi-nation project to prevent floods in a western Ukrainian region that saw severe rain damage this spring, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Donations will also come from Canada, Poland, Hungary and other NATO members, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Experts from Ukraine, neighboring Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, several other European countries and the United States are expected to discuss the pilot project in Brussels on June 28-29.

Western Ukraine, along with parts of Hungary and Romania, have suffered from heavy flooding of the Tisza River in recent years. This spring, Ukrainian authorities evacuated thousands of people from Zakarpattia, the region where the project will be focused.

Ukraine formally proclaimed itself a neutral country and surrendered its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal to Russia, but pledged a special partnership with NATO in 1997, participating in joint military exercises and civil safety programs.

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