Ukraine asks EU and NATO to help deal with floods

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited an area in the west of the country on Thursday which suffered torrential rains this week which killed four people and forced hundreds to flee their homes.

They have affected more than 200 towns and villages in four western regions of Ukraine, cut off gas supplies for about 10,000 people and damaged about 430 kilometres (267 miles) of roads and 130 bridges.

Zelenskiy, who travelled to an area in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, has asked the European Union and NATO for help coping with the aftermath of massive floods in the country's west.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it hopes both the EU and NATO will step up to help protect critical infrastructure and to ease economic damage from the floods.

The Ukrainian government has deployed 1,500 emergency workers to deal with the immediate consequences.

Authorities said it would cost about $1 billion hryvnias (about 37 million US dollars) to repair the damage from the floods, the country's strongest since 2008.

More rain is forecast for Friday.

(Image Credit Pixabay)