UK to fund Ukraine’s wheat supply to Syria with almost $4m

The United Kingdom is set to allocate almost $4 million to the supply of grain and other food products from Ukraine to Syria, amid the easing of restrictions on the country over the past month.

Following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria on 8 December and the takeover of the former opposition, Ukraine was one of the nations in the international community which hailed the development, guaranteeing the provision of Ukrainian grain supplies to Syria.

The UK has now given its public support for the initiative, with the allocation of £3 million ($3.7 million) set to help fund that programme, reportedly in coordination with the World Food Program (WFP).

In a statement by the British government today, it asserted that “this planned support will provide a lifeline to the most vulnerable in Syria unlike Russian grain supplies to the brutal Assad regime which attempted to buy favour, loading costly debt on the Syrian state”.

The initiative is part of a broader new funding programme to provide Ukraine itself with £55 million ($69 million) in humanitarian and economic assistance, in the framework of a 100-year partnership agreement signed by British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, last month.

Tags: United Kingdom, World Food Program, Ukraine, grain, Syria