UN may allocate $33 million of anti-coronavirus aid to Ukraine

The United Nations has started collecting $2 billion to fight COVID-19 in the world’s most vulnerable countries, including Ukraine, which may receive $33 million of humanitarian aid as a result.

If collected, the U.N. will allocate the money to help people living in the war-torn Donbas, “on both sides from the contact line,”Oleh Nikolenko, press secretary of the Permanent Office of Ukraine at the U.N., wrote on Facebook on March 25. He didn’t specify how exactly the money transfer would happen.

In particular, the money would be spent on healthcare facilities, the provision of food and staple goods and support for the elderly and people with disabilities, as well as online learning platforms for schools in the Donbas, he wrote. The humanitarian aid would also include the delivery of laboratory equipment and medicines, the installation of additional stations for personal hygiene, and information campaigns on coronavirus.

However, economist Sergey Fursa told the Kyiv Post on March 26 that this sum isn’t that significant compared to the actual needs of Ukraine. “It is a symbolic sum,” Fursa said.

The economist believes that, instead of money, the U.N. should send tests and masks to Ukraine and that shipping sanitary equipment would be more useful to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the country, where 162 people have tested positive for the virus and five have died of it.

Hlib Vyshlinksy, executive director of the Center for Economic Strategy, told the Kyiv Post on March 26 that it was too early to comment without knowing more about this aid. “It is worth waiting for the details,” he said.

Besides, the money is not immediately available, as it still has to be collected by its deadline in December. However, the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has already chipped in $75 million, to which some countries added over $3 million, bringing the total to $78 million so far.

Economic relief 

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to contract in 2020 and the country’s budget deficit could climb from 2.1% to 7% of GDP.

The nationwide quarantine measures, which the country imposed on March 12 and now will last until April 24, are already affecting the economy.

In a press conference held on March 20, representatives of the Center for Economic Strategy estimated that Ukraine’s industry had already lost over $178 million in revenue in the first week of the shutdown.

In an attempt to help people whose incomes are disrupted by the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal announced on March 26 the creation of a stabilization fund worth over $7 billion (roughly Hr 200 billion).

Ukrainian officials have also previously estimated that it will cost about $4 billion just to fight the COVID-19 disease, saying they need more money from international donors to protect citizens against the virus.

On March 23, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were ready to help Ukraine. And talks are indeed ongoing with the IMF over a $5.5-billion extended fund facility, as well as a possible $50 billion coronavirus rescue package.