Kyiv, December 7, 2015. Estonia’s assistance for Ukraine last year amounted to 1 million euros. In 2015 it has doubled. The money is allocated to two areas: development (1.1 million euros) and humanitarian aid (1.25 million euros). This was announced by the Ambassador of Estonia to Ukraine Sulev Kannike at a briefing at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. “We hope that this proportion that we are allocating more money for humanitarian aid, than for development of Ukraine will soon change. In reality, the need for humanitarian assistance is effectuated by urgent needs. Whilst development financing will help the country move forward,” Sulev Kannike emphasised. The Ambassador also said that the priority areas where the Estonian government renders its support are the IT sector, e-government, development of democracy and of civil society. In the present circumstances the emphasis is being put on finding employment for ATO veterans and internally displaced persons in the IT sector, treatment and recovery of the wounded Ukrainian soldiers and on helping Ukrainian medical institutions.
According to Natalia Brazhenko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk branch of the “International Association for Supporting Ukraine”, owing to the Estonian help, now she is implementing a project on supplying necessary drugs and equipment to hospitals in the east of Ukraine and hospitals where the wounded ATO combatants are treated. “In Dnipropetrovsk we are in the borderland. The load on us is constantly growing. Despite the fact that there are no active hostilities in the east now, the wounded keep arriving: civilians who got injured by tripwire mines and soldiers shot at by snipers,” Ms. Brazhenko explained. She pointed out that according to the results of the first phase 9 hospitals of the ATO zone had received aid worth more than 70,000 euros, while is the second phase 28 medical activities had been financed in the amount of 60,000 euros, and in the third phase – 23 hospitals in the amount of 53,000 euros. The project covered hospitals in Dnipropetrovsk, Pavlograd, Dniprodzerzhinsk, Volnovakha, Severodonetsk and Artemivsk.
In Volnovakha, in particular, a clinical laboratory, a casualty, a surgery department and a midwifery hospital were supplied with medical equipped. “At any time, even during the times of warfare, life goes on. The population continues delivering children, and their number has not decreased but on the contrary increased. […] Now we are able to help children who for various reasons were not born fully healthy,” said Hanna Turenok, a leading gynaecologist of Volnovakha Central Hospital. According to her, medical equipment cost is USD 300 000.
As the participants of the event have pointed out, and particularly, Anatoliy Liutiuk, the founder of the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Tallinn, “such a small country as Estonia does so much. We should all be aware of the fact that Ukraine is supported”.