Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, UNICEF has managed to mobilize more than $1 billion to help little Ukrainians, said Munir Mammadzade, head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) office in Ukraine.

As he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, UNICEF was in the country before the war, its mandate covered development and humanitarian issues. That is, the Organization was already working and had a presence in the regions, all this helped launch comprehensive work to respond to a full-scale war and attract additional resources to help children as much as possible. During this time, UNICEF managed to mobilize more than $1 billion for Ukraine and neighboring countries, where Ukrainians began to move because of the war, its representative added.

According to Mammadzade, the request for humanitarian aid for Ukraine from UNICEF for this year is $496 million and 70% of this amount has been financed, which indicates the interest of donor countries in supporting Ukraine. He noted that it is often impossible to attract more than 50%.

In addition to humanitarian aid to those in need, UNICEF also has program activities that concern development, recovery and other areas. Now the Organization clearly distinguishes between what is humanitarian activity - saving lives, and what are elements of our development work, Mammadzade noted.

According to him, next year UNICEF plans to reduce the humanitarian request by 20% compared to this year and increase plans and requests for systemic work, that is, for the mandate component concerning development, which includes issues of the social protection system.