Taiwan to send donations to help displaced Ukrainians

Name: China’s Xi Jinping 'paying close attention' to Russia-Ukraine crisis
Uploaded: 2022-03-07T13:00:27.000Z
Duration: 2 min 25 s
Description: China’s Xi Jinping 'paying close attention' to Russia-Ukraine crisis

Foreign minister Joseph Wu says the authorities are collecting donations from ordinary Taiwanese and will send the money to help displaced people

Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with Kyiv, but Wu says it is helping as a member of international society

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Foreign minister Joseph Wu (left) said more than US$10 million had been collected. Photo: CNS

Lawrence Chung

Published: 9:00pm, 7 Mar 2022

Taiwan has announced a new round of donations to help Ukrainians who have been displaced by Russia’s invasion.

Despite the lack of formal relations with Ukraine, which recognises Beijing diplomatically, Taiwan said on Monday it would offer more relief aid to Ukraine after sending 27 tonnes of medical supplies to the country last week.

“Since Russia launched its military invasion of Ukraine on February 24 … countless Ukrainians have been displaced and deeply impacted by traumatic images we saw in public media and I trust any normal human being would be impacted as well,” Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said in Taipei.

Wu said many Taiwanese people had offered to donate funds to help Ukraine and its displaced people who have fled to neighbouring countries like Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

The foreign ministry set up a special account on March 2 to accept the donations and arranged for the funds to be sent to European countries housing those displaced, Wu noted.

“Now just after five short days, the total amount of this has increased to over NT$300 million [US$10.6 million],” Wu said, adding it had decided on Monday to send the first batch of the funds – NT$100 million – to Poland where Taiwan had a representative office and the Polish government had a designated agency to help deliver the donated funds and supplies.

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China’s Xi Jinping 'paying close attention' to Russia-Ukraine crisis