Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 7th Feb. UN Humanitarian Affairs head and the Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths on Monday briefed the members of the Security Council and warned that the efforts must improve to reach18 million in need in Ukraine.
Griffiths said “On the eve of the horrific one-year milestone, we have a lot to do and we can do better.”
WHO report documented 14,000 civilian casualties, 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 7.5 million Ukrainian refugees displaced across Europe.
The report covered the first nine months of the ongoing war.
Over 40 per cent of Ukraine’s population needs assistance, against a backdrop of more than 7,000 civilian deaths and widespread devastation, Griffiths said.
He told the situation on the ground. Homes, schools and hospitals have been destroyed and entire cities heavily damaged.
“This violence shows no signs of abating,” he said, recalling recent airstrikes and sharing poignant scenes from his December visit to Ukraine.
He witnessed communities completely cut off from electricity and essential supplies, he said “in this war escape, I also saw people’s remarkable drive for survival” amid the ongoing conflict.
Relief head cited a bakery run by women, with help from the WFP, which now produces thousands of loaves daily.
“The people of Ukraine have left the whole world in awe of their resilience,” he said.
He detailed some of the colossal challenges they face, from rampant sexual violence and trafficking, to crippling damage to infrastructure.
UN provides 15.8 million people with assistance, including 1.3 million outside the Ukrainian Government’s control, he said. Inter-agency convoys provide comprehensive packages of support with a wealth of partners to send supplies – from winter coats to building materials – to those most in need.
He said operations have expanded exponentially in the past year. Convoys have delivered life-saving aid to villages near the front line in rural parts of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts.
He noted the humanitarian partners were delivering assistance, mainly in the east on both sides of the front line in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, or regions, following the initial 2014 Russian invasion.
Over 650 humanitarian organizations now operate across all Ukrainian oblasts, he added.
“But, we need to reach more people, more frequently,” he stressed.
“We must continue to staunchly advocate from all angles, to stop the humanitarian catastrophe and suffering of the Ukrainian people and to address this war’s profound global implications on global food and energy prices, trade and supply chains and on questions of nuclear safety.”
“We are making progress where we can,” he said.
He noted that the Black Sea Grain Initiative continues to make strides and anticipating the critical need for its renewal in March.
UN will try to press for facilitating more food and fertilizer exports from Russia in a broader effort to address global food insecurity.
He said despite of attempts, cross line convoys from north to south have not materialized,
Griffiths emphasized that humanitarian access to areas under Russia’s temporary military control have become increasingly unpredictable and impeded. He reminded all parties in Ukraine to take constant care to spare civilians and relate objects and ensure passage of aid deliveries.
The 2023 humanitarian response plan, to be launched in Geneva next week, requires $3.9 billion to bring assistance to over 11 million people, he said. Faced with these current conditions, coming after the previous eight years of conflict between Russia and Ukraine, he stressed that more must be done.
“I call on us all to push forward with renewed vigour to give the people of Ukraine the peace and support they need and deserve,” he said.
UN chief António Guterres said the chances of further escalation and bloodshed keep growing.
“I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war,” he said. “It is doing so with its eyes wide open.”
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