National Bank of Ukraine transfers $430 mln of Western aid to armed forces

KYIV. March 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The National Bank of Ukraine has transferred 12.6 billion hryvni in equivalent to the national armed forces; the balance at the special account stands at 277 million hryvni, the bank said on Thursday.

The exchange rate is 29.25 hryvni/$1.

In total, an equivalent of 12.8 billion hryvni had arrived in the account, including 3.7 billion hryvni from the United States, Britain, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, China, France and Canada, the bank said.

The bank already sent 950 million hryvni to the National Guard, 1.65 billion hryvni to the National Police, 9.035 billion hryvni to the Defense Ministry and 980.2 million hryvni to the State Border Guard Service.

In addition, the balance at the account of the Ministry of Social Policy, which the bank opened on March 1 for humanitarian purposes, was equivalent to 299 million hryvni. This includes 152 million hryvni received in foreign currency from abroad.

The special multi-currency account was set up by the National Bank on February 24 to raise funds for the army after the country imposed martial law. The account is intended for money transfers both from international partners and donors in foreign currency (U.S. dollar, euro, British pound sterling) and from Ukrainian businesses in national currency.