The United Nations emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, told journalists in Geneva the situation for many in Ukraine remained desperate, amid “relentless” shelling of targets. civil consumption and infrastructure.
Humanitarian funding is needed to continue to support the delivery of life-saving aid to frontline communities.”into areas of great danger and difficulty and priority need“, said Griffiths, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
aid under fire
He emphasized that on Tuesday, staff of the United Nations country team had traveled from Dnipro in six ready-to-go trucks to the eastern Donetsk region, some 200 kilometers away, to deliver aid to two the village was caught up in “the worst war zones… shelling, daily attacks, bombed houses, freezing cold, electrical problems”.
To continue this lifesaving work, the head of OCHA has called for $3.9 billion to help 11.1 million out of 18 million people in need of humanitarian assistance inside Ukraine. Formally known as the Humanitarian Response Plan for Ukraine, it brings together more than 650 partners, the majority of whom are Ukrainian organisations.
Refugee need: $1.7 billion by 2023
Parallel to the call of OCHA, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are also searching $1.7 billion to help Ukrainian refugees in 10 host countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi warned against complacency about what is happening in Ukraine. “I think we’re getting used to this; we should notbecause it’s pretty horrible what the Russian invasion is doing to the country,” he said.
Describing a recent official visit to Ukraine, the head of the UNHCR said that in the year since Russian combat groups crossed the border on February 24, 2022, civilian infrastructure in Ukraine continues under constant attack, causing nurseries “leveled and the old people live in the cellar because of the danger of bombs“.
Medical support, education, employment
Mr. Grandi went on to say refugees from the conflict always intend to return to Ukraine at some point, but until that happens, he said that the call for a Human Response Plan Tuesday’s asylum will continue to help millions of refugees and hundreds of UN partners on the ground.
In particular, the funding will support health and nutrition services, education, livelihoods and temporary protectionThe High Commissioner explained.
“The Ukrainian refugee crisis – the displacement crisis – is clearly still the biggest crisis in the world,” he said. “It is estimated that nearly six million people are internally displaced. Plus, you know, European refugees registered for temporary protection is almost five million, 4.8 million. But we know there’s a lot more that isn’t there yet.”
Amid reports that violence is escalating in the east, the latest United Nations estimates show more than 7,000 civilians were killed in Ukraine last year, with 12,000 injured. “This is almost certainly a low estimate,” Mr. Griffiths said.
Humanitarian medical and water supplies are delivered to communities in the Soledar and Donetsk regions in Ukraine.
The Grain Initiative must continue
When asked about the UN-led efforts to secure an extension of the agreement to transport fertilizers and food from Ukraine and Russia to the many countries that need them around the world, the veteran aid official stressed. strong that “The Southern Hemisphere and international food security need to keep working“.
More than 21.3 million tons of corn, wheat, oil and other foods have been transported through the Black Sea, as part of the Black Sea Grains InitiativeThis should be allowed to continue, the UN emergency coordinator said. “We don’t need it to stop in mid-March and I hope – indeed I hope and believe – that it will be extended. And that’s because this is an obvious case for international humanitarian security.”
MV Brave Commander docked at Hodeidah port in Yemen carrying Ukrainian flour milled in Turkiye. (October 2022)
Towns removed from the map: IOM
Inside Ukraine, the United Nations migration agency, IOMsays the scale of the devastation in the south and east is so great – so much so, a senior UN humanitarian worker with the agency told UN News in an interview, that some towns “don’t even exist anymore”.
“We saw heavy fighting on both sides[of the line of communication],” said IOM regional director Johannes Fromholt, who described some locations as “full of soldiers, military equipment.”
Amid rising violence in the east, Fromholt explained that some civilians have managed to flee Donetsk province to the more central town of Znamyanka, where IOM is helping to repair newcomers’ dormitories.
For those unable to leave, the situation remains dire.
“In frontline (conflict) locations is actually getting worse, with skirmishes increasing daily,” said the IOM staff member. “So people simply had to stay in the basement in shelters where, of course, it was cold. There is no electricity in these frontline locations.”
