World Food Programme delivers food aid to over 1 million people in Ukraine

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that it has delivered food aid to 1 million people in Ukraine and requested an additional USD 590 million in funding to expand the assistance.

"JUST IN: @WFP has reached 1 million people in #Ukraine w/ emergency food assistance including humanitarian convoys into Sumy & Kharkiv, two hard-to-reach cities. Within a few months, we'll be working hard to scale up to 6 million people. But we urgently need funds to do it," WFP Executive Director David Beasley said on Twitter.

The WFP said it managed to build a network of urgent assistance tools in Ukraine within just one month. Food is now being delivered to such conflict zones as Sumy and Kharkiv by two convoys of humanitarian vehicles, while displaced Ukrainians in the western city of Lviv are receiving cash assistance.

"Now that the structures are in place, we need the funding to keep delivering assistance, and to help 3 million people in need," the agency said, adding that "WFP requires $590 million to assist 3.1 million crisis-affected people and IDPs on the move inside Ukraine with in-kind and cash distributions, as well as refugees and asylum seekers from Ukraine in neighbouring countries for the next three months."

On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after declaring the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics. The Russian Ministry of Defense said the operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger.