Zelensky secures additional $1.1 bn for Ukraine war
In a video message, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine's devastated energy sector urgently needed assistance of about 800 million euros.
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (AFP)
The West pledged an additional $1.1 billion in essential supplies to war-devastated Ukraine. This cash will allegedly enable “the nation to fend against Russia's assault on its electricity grid”.
Some 70 nations and international organizations met in Paris to help Ukrainians "get through this winter," French President Emmanuel Macron said. In a video message, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine's devastating energy sector urgently needed the assistance of about 800 million euros.
"Of course, it is a very high amount, but the cost is less than the cost of a potential blackout," Zelensky told the conference via video link.
Ukraine needs spare parts for repairs, high-capacity generators, extra gas as well as increased electricity imports, Zelensky claimed.
"Generators have become as necessary as armored vehicles and bullet-proof jackets," he said.
The US is spending roughly $130 million to arm Ukraine daily, in addition to funds spent on economic and other assistance, prompting current and former US officials to warn that Washington needs to take more action to ensure that the equipment and funds sent to Kiev actually make it to the country, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier in June.
Read more: Weapons delivered to Ukraine 'beginning to filter' to Africa: Nigeria
In October, Fox News' popular conservative TV host, Tucker Carlson, considered that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's "Christmas list" of demands for more assistance from the US should be rejected by Congress after the Ukrainian President requested tens of billions of dollars from his Western allies.
On his show, Carlson described the Ukrainian President as a "celebrity-endorsed dictator of the most corrupt nation in Europe."
"What? Some uppity foreigner in a T-shirt demanding money for his ‘critical economic needs’? We have critical economic needs too, buddy. Who are you, troll? Go away!" Carlson said, asking the US administration in a mocking way if Zelensky had a claim on the nation’s treasury.
