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Limbo prime guide8/6/2023 “I find it incredible that £2.3 billion pounds destined for humanitarian aid is sitting in a bank account unused when it could be literally saving lives,” she said. Kate Cavalier, 44, from Hampshire, is part of the Sunflower Sisters women’s network, which has homed 14,000 women and children refugees displaced as a result of the conflict. “A lot of that is driven by not just the war and the consequences in the Ukraine and in the region, but obviously in the rest of the world too.” ‘PM must override the EU’įamilies in the UK hosting women and children displaced by the war are now planning to lobby MPs. “It’s been over a year since the escalation and this is a huge amount of money at a time of historic humanitarian need across the world,” he added. The money could quite quickly be swallowed up by reconstruction costs rather than immediate humanitarian need if the fund is confined to borders, he explained. James Denselow, head of the conflict team at Save the Children, said the charity sector had hoped some of the issues would have been addressed “10 months ago rather than now”. “By contrast, more than 28 million people across Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and South Sudan are fighting for their lives, facing the worst kind of crisis in living memory.Whatever the reasons for holding the funds are, humanitarian aid should never be politicised, and the UK must do urgently its utmost to release those funds.” “It would be outrageous to learn that the UK Government had been sitting on such an amount of money when people in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world are suffering,” said Pauline Chetcuti, Head of Policy at Oxfam GB. Legal undertakings ensure neither Abramovich or Chelsea could ever benefit from the funds intended for the foundation.Īmid the current impasse, leading humanitarian charities pointed to families supporting refugees in the UK and famine in East Africa as a result of conflict-related food shortages. “We still hope in the run up to the conference, that the government is ready to announce this,” Mr Penrose added. The Telegraph understands ministers were keen to be in a position to announce the funds had been released ahead of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London this week. The European Commission and Portuguese Government have been consulted over the foundation because Abramovich has held a Portuguese passport since 2021. “There’s obviously a great deal of need that we’re seeing both inside Ukraine because of the dam but also outside of Ukraine where the money is equally required to help refugees, those hosting them, and those suffering because of the direct consequences of this war,” he added. Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis has worsened in the last week after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam caused a long-term environmental catastrophe affecting drinking water and food supplies. “We would just hope that they would do the same in this regard.” “The government in the past has made brave calls when it felt that organisations like the EU were not doing the right thing,” Mr Penrose said. In a post-Brexit landscape, it has come as a surprise to many within the sector that the Government seems to be so readily siding with demands from Brussels. “It’s a tremendous shame we are not over the line yet,” said Mr Penrose, speaking out about the delay for the first time. The independent foundation set up to administer the funds is being established by Mike Penrose, a former Unicef UK chief executive, who has been ready to start work since the end of last year. That position, The Telegraph can now disclose, has enraged a host of leading humanitarian charities. However, the huge fund has remained untouched in a frozen account since the club was sold at the end of May last year in part because the Government shares the reservations expressed in Europe.ĭespite the sale of the club taking place entirely within UK jurisdiction, the bloc has stipulated that the money can only be spent within Ukraine’s borders. Roman Abramovich first pledged the proceeds would be for “all victims” of the Ukraine war after putting Chelsea up for sale on March 2 last year, eight days before facing sanctions over alleged links to Vladimir Putin. Oxfam, Save the Children, Kyiv-based charities and UK families hosting Ukrainian refugees have also added their weight to calls for the Prime Minister to urgently break a 13-month deadlock. A “world-changing” Ukraine aid foundation left in limbo over £2.34 billion of frozen funds from the sale of Chelsea FC is calling on ministers to stand up to the EU over the delays.
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