Global government and business leaders as well as banks have pledged 10.1 billion euro (£8.4bn; $11bn) to provide humanitarian support for Ukraine.
The pledges were made during the ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’ event organised by the European Commission, Canada and the international advocacy organisation Global Citizen.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who co-hosted the event in the Polish capital Warsaw, announced the Commission itself pledged 1 billion euro.
Of this, 600m euro would go to the Ukrainian government and United Nations, and 400m euros would provide assistance to countries neighbouring Ukraine that have taken in refugees.
In a videotaped message, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia, the largest country in the world by area, had attacked his nation, Ukraine, the largest country in the world by courage.
He made a call for further sanctions against all of Russia’s banks and a ban on buying Russian oil to starve the Kremlin’s war machine of funds.
Appearing on one of the event’s panels, Arina Bilai, a 16-year-old Ukrainian, urged European countries to stop buying Russian energy, saying they had sent 35 billion euro to the Kremlin since the war began.
Around 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced since the war began, six million of them inside Ukraine and 4 million of them have fled the fighting to other countries.
The event was held in the Polish capital in recognition of Poland’s leading role in accepting 2.6 million refugees from Ukraine – more than 60% of the total who have fled the country.
