World Bank announces $1.5B in added aid to Ukraine

by Caroline Vakil - 06/08/22 12:08 PM ET

AP-Alexei Alexandrov
FILE – Servicemen of the militia from the Donetsk People’s Republic walk past damaged apartment buildings near the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, the second-largest metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022. Mariupol, which is part of the industrial region in eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, has been a key objective for Russia since the start of the Feb. 24 invasion. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

The World Bank announced on Tuesday that it will be providing roughly $1.5 billion in additional financing to Ukraine, money which will go toward paying government and social workers.

The aid is being funded from parallel financing from Italy; financing guarantees from Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Latvia and the Netherlands; and expected future guarantees from countries including Denmark.

The World Bank noted that the additional financing was part of a more than $4 billion package to Ukraine, with dispersed funds totaling close to $2 billion already.

“The World Bank Group is providing continuing support for Ukraine and its people in the face of the ongoing war,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said in a statement. “We are working with donor countries to mobilize financial support and leveraging the flexibility of our various financing instruments to help provide Ukrainians with access to health services, education and social protection.”

Last month, the United States passed a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine. The Biden administration announced that under the first round of that aid, it would send the country a $700 million weapons package that includes advanced rocket systems.

The war in Ukraine has raged on for more than 100 days. After failing to take Kyiv in the opening weeks of its invasion, Russia is seeking to capture territory in Ukraine’s Donbas region, with fighting ongoing in the city of Sievierodonetsk in the eastern Luhansk region.