Ukraine to allocate additional funds for post-conflict recovery

The Ukrainian government said on Thursday it will allocate an additional 200 million euros (about 225 million U.S. dollars) for the post-conflict recovery in eastern regions.

The funds, attracted earlier as a loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), will be used for financing 69 relief projects in the government-controlled areas of the conflict-torn Donetsk and Lugansk regions and the surrounding Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe regions, where many people displaced by the conflict live, said the government said in a statement.

"The money will go for renovation and enhancing the energy efficiency of the infrastructure, which is used for the resettlement of internally displaced persons," Deputy Prime Minister Gennady Zubko said.

In particular, the funds will be used for the repair of electrical, heating and water supply facilities as well as for the renovation of road infrastructure, which was damaged by the conflict, Zubko said.

The armed confrontation between government troops and pro-independence insurgents, which started in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, caused an extensive damage to public and private infrastructure of the region and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

In July, the Ukrainian authorities have granted 120 million dollars from the state budget for the overhaul of social facilities and road infrastructure in Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Endit