Kiev, 17 July 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, has announced a $100 million aid package to help Ukraine prepare for winter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said on Tuesday.

Zelensky met with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi during Grandi's fifth visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

"We appreciate today's announcement of a new UNHCR assistance package worth USD 100 million to prepare Ukraine for the winter. Considering the constant shelling of energy facilities, this is very important assistance," Zelensky said in a statement.

He added that Ukraine needed additional support to restore destroyed housing and arrange shelters in schools and hospitals so that Ukrainians could return home.

Grandi wrote on social media platform X that he had assured Zelensky that UNHCR continued to "stand beside his government" in helping Ukrainians affected by the war.

"Preparing for winter is a priority: UNHCR can already commit US$100 million and will keep mobilizing more resources," Grandi wrote.

Grandi also visited the Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in Kiev, where at least two people died and 17 more were wounded, including seven children, during a missile attack earlier in July.

"No place should be more protected than a hospital for children. Yet, it was hit by a missile on 8 July," he wrote on X.

The UNHCR estimates that around 6.5 million people have fled abroad from Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022.

About 3.5 million others have been displaced from their homes by the fighting and have found refuge in other parts of Ukraine.

Photo: X