The World Bank announced on Tuesday that it had approved a new $610 million package for Ukraine. The money will be used to keep important services running and help with health care while the war continues.
This comes as World Bank President David Malpass said in a statement that Russia’s invasion “continues to have devastating economic and humanitarian consequences.”
He also said that the war has hurt Ukraine’s health care, energy infrastructure, and transportation networks.
$500 million of the extra money comes from a loan that will help Ukraine’s government pay for child and family benefits, salaries for public employees, and utility bills.
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The World Bank said, “It is important to keep these important public services running in order to stop the loss of human capital and rebuild the country and its economy after the war.”
The rest of the money goes to a project that, according to the bank, is meant to improve primary health care and meet other needs, such as the increased need for mental health and rehabilitation services because of the war.
The statement said that as of the beginning of December, about 5.5% of Ukraine’s public health care providers had been destroyed or damaged.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Washington-based development lender has raised $18 billion in emergency funds to help Ukrainians, of which $15 billion has been given out.
The new funds are in addition to earlier packages, which included two rounds of $4.5 billion in grants from the US government in the past few months and another $530 million in loan guarantees in September.
