New Zealand has allocated money to support Ukraine: how much and what will it be used for?
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Lacson and Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced a new support package for Ukraine of NZ$16 million (over US$9.4 million) ahead of the NATO summit in The Hague.
This was reported by the press service of the New Zealand government.
The package includes both military and humanitarian assistance. In particular, 4 million NZD ($2.3 million) will be directed to two international funds: the NATO Security Assistance Mission to Ukraine (NSATU) fund and the “Drone Coalition”, created under the leadership of the United Kingdom and Latvia.
“Ukraine’s defense is important not only for Europe, but also for the Indo-Pacific region. Together we must support a rules-based global order,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters emphasized.
Another NZD 7 million ($4.1 million) will go towards humanitarian assistance to affected communities in Ukraine, and NZD 1 million ($593,000) will support Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country due to the war.
“The scale of the needs remains enormous. Russia continues its targeted destruction of civilian infrastructure. We cannot stand by,” said Christopher Lacson.
The new support package also complements New Zealand’s recently announced sanctions against the Russian “shadow fleet” and other entities involved in aggression against Ukraine.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand Vasyl Myroshnychenko thanked the government for its consistent assistance.
“I am sincerely grateful for your unwavering position and practical steps. Together we are bringing Ukraine’s victory closer,” he said.
Recall that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new defense assistance package to Ukraine worth over 2 billion Canadian dollars (approximately 1.5 billion US dollars) during the G7 summit before meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as a large-scale expansion of sanctions against the Russian Federation.
Earlier, the New Zealand government announced the introduction of new sanctions targeting Russian and Belarusian companies and citizens . In addition, the sanctions list included four individuals from North Korea and two from Iran, who are related to supporting Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.
Also follow “Pryamim” on Facebook , Twitter , Telegram , and Instagram.