Sweden announces €100 million winter support package for Ukraine

Sweden has announced the allocation of nearly €100 million in additional humanitarian support to Ukraine ahead of the coming winter.

The new winter support package from Sweden, worth SEK 1.1 billion (€99.7 million), is intended for urgent reconstruction and development needs and humanitarian assistance as winter approaches.

It will cover sectors such as energy and housing, healthcare, demining, support for internally displaced people and support for the media.

SEK 450 million (approx. US$47.8 million) will go towards Ukraine's energy needs – generation and repair of damaged infrastructure. The funds will be channelled into the Ukraine Energy Support Fund.

SEK 385 million (US$40.9 million) will be provided for the repair of energy and housing infrastructure and for maintaining the functioning of state services through the World Bank's Ukraine Reconstruction Trust Fund (URTF).

SEK 100 million (US$10.6 million) will be allocated for demining, to be split equally between projects run by the UN Development Programme and Sida.

SEK 30 million (US$3.2 million) will support independent media (SEK 15 million/US$1.6 million each via the Prague Civil Society Centre and Sida), SEK 25 million (US$2.7 million) will go to strengthening the legal sector, and SEK 10 million (US$1.1 million) to training and retraining programmes in the transport and logistics sectors.

SEK 50 million (US$5.3 million) will be channelled through the UN World Food Programme to provide humanitarian aid to residents of frontline hromadas. [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories – ed.]

SEK 30 million (US$3.2 million) will be allocated to support internally displaced people through the UN Refugee Agency, SEK 25 million (US$2.7 million) through UNICEF and SEK 20 million (US$2.1 million) through Save the Children for child-support programmes, and SEK 20 million (US$2.1 million) for maternal and women's health programmes.

Denmark recently prepared a military aid package for Ukraine worth over US$400 million.

On 22 September, it was reported that the European Commission approved amendments proposed by Ukraine to the Ukraine Plan, which outlines the reforms needed to unlock EU funding under the Ukraine Facility.