World Bank sends $1.49 billion aid package for Ukraine
The World Bank announces that the new funding is part of an overall support package worth more than $4 billion.
The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved $1.49 billion in new financing for Ukraine, according to a statement from the agency.
The new funding is part of the World Bank's entire support package of more than $4 billion. Financial assurances have been provided by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, and other countries. The World Bank anticipates that the project's financing will be used "to pay for wages for government and social workers."
According to the statement, World Bank Group President David Malpass is "working with donor countries to mobilize financial support" and is taking steps to "help give Ukrainians with access to health care, education, and social protection."
Earlier, the World Bank approved an additional $489 million package of assistance for Ukraine on Monday, dubbed "Financing of Recovery from Economic Emergency in Ukraine," or "FREE Ukraine," to be made available immediately.
On March 1, the Washington-based organization announced that it was preparing $3 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine, with at least $350 million to be released immediately.
The board of directors then decided to disburse an even larger sum. In a statement, it said that “the package approved by the Board consists of a supplemental loan for $350 million and guarantees in the amount of $139 million.”
“The fast-disbursing support will help the government provide critical services to Ukrainian people, including wages for hospital workers, pensions for the elderly, and social programs for the vulnerable,” it said.
According to the bank, it is "also mobilizing grant financing of $134 million and parallel financing of $100 million, for a total mobilized the support of $723 million."
In light of the billions funneled into Ukraine, the World Bank has left Afghanistan suffering in silence. In February, the World Bank's management supposedly approved a plan to use $1 billion from a frozen Afghanistan trust fund for education, agriculture, health, and family programs after US President Joe Biden’s decision to seize $7 billion from the poverty-stricken country's frozen assets.
To this end, Joe Biden signed an executive order releasing $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds to be shared between "suspended" humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan and American victims of "terrorism", including 9/11 families, something which the afghans slammed as theft and moral decline of the US.