Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATION, 17th Jan. UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday in a statement issued by UN spokesman office in New York has strongly condemned Russia’s attack on a large residential building in Dnipro over the weekend that has left 40 civilians dead, including three children, and at least 75 injured, with those figures likely to rise, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country.
Associate Spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay told in a regular press briefing in New York that António Guterres had condemned Saturday evening’s missile strike adding that it was “another example of a suspected violation of the laws of war.”
UN spokesman office issued a statement later in the day, the Spokesperson reiterated that “attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, violate international humanitarian law. They must end immediately.”
The office of UN aid coordination wing OCHA in Ukraine described the strike on the 9 storey building in the central Ukrainian city as one of the deadliest attacks since Russia began its full-scale invasion on 24 February last year.
OCHA said many still unaccounted for, rescuers were digging through the rubble looking for survivors on Monday, while dozens more civilians were killed or injured across the country over the weekend period.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned the immense civilian toll of the attack by Russia, calling for an effective investigation of suspected war crimes and appropriate prosecution of suspects.
Ms. Tremblay said that “More than 1,000 people have been made homeless as a result of the attack, according to our humanitarian colleagues on the ground”.
UN agencies and NGOs have acted fast to support the families, she added.
She noted that UNICEF, UNHCR and others providing psychosocial support to survivors, as well as winter clothes, blankets, hygiene kits and other critical household items.
“We are also helping families relocate to temporary accommodations in the city”, she said.
WHO is supplying medicines and other supplies, she told.
Ms. Tremblay said that in the southern city of Kherson, the premises hosting the Ukrainian Red Cross Society were hit during shelling in the city on Sunday, said Ms. Tremblay.
“Although no one was injured, the organization lost critical supplies.”
UN deputy relief chief Joyce Msuya, said in a tweet on Monday that she was “shocked and terrified” by the attacks on civilians in Dnipro, and the shelling of the Red Cross facility in Kherson.
Ms. Brown said in a message tweeted by her office that a “place where people impacted by the war can find relief, should never be a target. My thoughts are with the Red Cross colleagues.”
Ms. Tremblay said that UN humanitarians wanted all combatants everywhere to understand that “humanitarian workers and facilities are protected and constant efforts must be made to spare them.
“A hospital, also protected under international humanitarian law, was hit in the city.”
Ms. Tremblay added that in Kryviy Rih, the Dnipro region, local authorities reported that more than 50 homes, three schools, and two kindergartens were damaged on Sunday.
“Further east, the situation remains critical, with scores of civilians killed and injured on both sides of the front line in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, said Ms. Tremblay.
According to Russian-installed authorities in the parts of Donetsk under Russian control, dozens of homes were damaged, and two health centres and several ambulances were hit during shelling reported over the weekend.
UNICEF office in Ukraine said that 5,000 winter clothing kits have been distributed in the Donetsk region, to “newly accessible cities” in a tweet on Monday.
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