The Ukrainian military, which remains in the southern port city of Mariupol, continues to resist, rejecting the Russians’ demand to surrender, Prime Minister Denis Shmigal was quoted as saying by BTA.
“The city hasn’t fallen yet,” he told ABC’s “This Week.” He said some areas of the besieged city were still under Ukrainian control.
Schmigal also said that next week Ukraine will apply for additional financial assistance at the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which will be held in Washington. “We need more money to fulfill our humanitarian and state obligations,” said the Prime Minister of Ukraine.
“Currently, our economy is running at half capacity, so we need financial support,” he said.
Ukraine’s current budget deficit is about $ 5 billion a month, the Ukrainian prime minister said.
Meanwhile, the European Union has announced that it will allocate another 50 million euros to help Ukraine cope with the humanitarian crisis, according to DPA.
Ukraine will receive 45m euros for humanitarian projects, and the remaining 5m euros will go to projects in neighboring Moldova, which has hosted hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war.
The money is part of a € 1 billion package allocated by the European Commission last week at the Support Ukraine donors’ conference.
The EU has said it has so far provided humanitarian aid to the victims of the Russian invasion totaling 143m euros.