On April 15, at the meeting of the 221st session of the UNESCO Executive Board, the decision "UNESCO’s Actions and Emergency Assistance Programme for Ukraine" was adopted by an overwhelming majority of votes.

This important decision for Ukraine calls on the Director-General to continue the implementation of UNESCO’s emergency assistance programme and to mobilize all relevant partners. It also provides for active monitoring of the situation in Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders to ensure UNESCO’s participation in relevant actions within the Organization’s mandate.

Presenting the report of the UNESCO Director-General on the implementation of the actions and emergency assistance programme for Ukraine, First Deputy Director-General Xing Qu noted that UNESCO was strengthening the mobilization of resources and partnerships to support the Ukrainian people. He also thanked partners and donors for their financial contributions to address the consequences of Russian aggression in UNESCO’s areas of mandate.

The main signals in the statements of the delegations of the member states included: strong condemnation of Russian aggression against Ukraine, protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, calling on the Russian Federation to stop the war and terror against the civilian population of Ukraine, recognition of the recent Russian Federation’s attacks on the civilian population in Kryvyi Rih and Sumy as war crimes, strengthening international efforts to return Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia, strong condemnation of crimes against journalists and the media sector of Ukraine, as well as strengthening UNESCO’s actions to protect cultural heritage and support the education system of Ukraine.

In the statement issued by the Group of Friends of Ukraine at UNESCO during the adoption of the decision, the states strongly condemned Russian aggression, stressed the urgency of further support and assistance to Ukraine from UNESCO, and highly appreciated UNESCO’s actions and emergency assistance programme for Ukraine. In addition, the authors of the statement thanked the UNESCO Secretariat and donors for fundraising 73 million USD for Ukraine and called for the continuation of these efforts. A statement in support of Ukraine was also issued by the EU delegation to UNESCO.