Through the United24 platform, more than $5 billion had been raised in support of Ukraine as of July 23. 

Qatar has donated $5 million to Ukraine to help its health ministry purchase ambulances among other medical necessities, Kyiv authorities said.

The donation was made by Qatar Fund for Develpment as part of the United24 fundraising platform, the Ukrainian health ministry said on its website.

The funds will go towards buying a new fleet of ambulances as well as anaesthetic equipment for inhalation anaesthesia used during surgery at medical facilities.

“For the first time in the two months of United24’s operation, a large fund made a contribution to medical care. Such donations from funds are critically important to us, because we understand that with one payment we can cover a great need,” said Ukraine’s Health Minister Viktor Liashko, according to the statement.

The official thanked the fund for “a significant contribution to saving lives.”

“We invite other organisations to cooperate so that the funds collected to help Ukrainians are used effectively and purposefully,” he added.

In May, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree establishing the United24 national brand to coordinate international partners’ efforts in support of his country.

The United24 fundraising platform is designed to be a “single window” for charitable organisations, international partners, and citizens to donate to Ukraine.

This includes donations to assist armed forces, humanitarian, medical, and children, infrastructure recovery, digital and information resistance to armed aggression.

Through the United24 platform, more than $5 billion had been raised in support of Ukraine as of July 23. 

Ongoing conflict

Ukraine and Russia have been interlocked in a brutal conflict that has left thousands dead.

Five months on, the UN has recorded at least 12,272 civilian casualties, out of which 5,237 killed and 7,035 injured. The actual figures are believed to be higher as the war continues to ravage on.

Qatar has repeatedly stressed the need for the Russian and Ukrainian sides to reach a political agreement.

“We are all aware that crises and wars in any region affect the entire world. The war in Ukraine has direct and indirect victims. This war has contributed to exacerbating an economic crisis that may lead to humanitarian disasters,” said Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani earlier this month.

Since Friday, Ukraine and Russia have disputed accusations after a missile attack or explosion that appeared to have killed scores of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the frontline village of Olenivka in eastern Donetsk.

The Russian defence ministry stated on Sunday that it had requested experts from the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the killings “in the interests of conducting an objective investigation.”

The ministry had issued a list of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war dead and 73 injured in what it claimed was a Ukrainian military strike using a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System developed in the United States (HIMARS).

Ukraine’s military forces denied culpability, claiming that Russian fire had attacked the facility in order to conceal mistreatment.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba claimed on Friday that Russia had committed a war crime and asked for international condemnation.

The United Nations had stated that it was willing to send specialists to examine if both parties agreed. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was attempting to gain access and had volunteered to assist in the evacuation of the injured.

Ukraine has denounced Russia’s embassy in London for tweeting that Ukrainian Azov battalion members deserved to die by hanging.

Azov is an ultra-nationalist all-volunteer infantry military unit with an estimated 900 soldiers who are accused of harbouring neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs.

The Patriot of Ukraine gang and the neo-Nazi Social National Assembly (SNA) organisation initially formed the unit as a volunteer group in May 2014. Both groups promoted xenophobic and neo-Nazi ideologies and violently assaulted migrants, the Roma population, and anybody who disagreed with them.