The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has announced a new support program to meet the needs of the people of Ukraine over the next two years, which will focus on strengthening the resilience and recovery of the country, the press service of the Program said.

"As part of a coordinated UN response, UNDP has an unwavering commitment to stay and deliver for the people of Ukraine – that includes supporting the Government to sustain essential governance structures for emergency response management, deliver vital public services, and protect livelihoods," UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said.

According to him, Ukraine needs immediate humanitarian assistance, "but we also need to keep the local economies going – this is fundamental to ensure that people still have livelihoods."

The new UNDP program will focus on three areas: support for government-led crisis response and public service delivery; leveraging human capital, economic capacities and natural resources of Ukraine to meet humanitarian needs and social and economic recovery; strengthening civil society institutions to maintain the social fabric, uphold human rights, protect and empower all citizens.

According to the report, UNDP pays special attention to the most vulnerable groups of the population. A priority is to address women's heightened vulnerability to violence, in particular war-related sexual violence. UNDP is also engaging local institutions and civil society in community-level responses to the crisis.