This is a modal window.
After a missile attack near the airport in Lviv in western Ukraine early on Friday, UN humanitarians warned that the situation across the country remains dire, following Russia’s invasion of its neighbour on 24 February.
“What happened in Lviv this morning, is nothing new, just as it was in other parts of the country, but it’s a strong reminder that this country is in war and the medical needs are increasing,” said Dr Jarno Habicht, representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Ukraine.
Now in its fourth week, the war in Ukraine has seen 44 attacks on health care throughout the country, including on buildings and a warehouse, patients, staff and supply chains, resulting in 12 confirmed deaths, according to WHO data.
Despite the dangers, the UN and its partners have continued to push for humanitarian access.
“On deliveries, we have up to 100 metric tonnes made available for Ukraine,” Dr Habicht said, speaking from Lviv, adding that “at least one-third” had been dispatched to health care facilities, including in the capital Kyiv.
Underscoring the deadly danger to civilians unable to escape Russian bombardment, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) described the situation in cities such as Mariupol and Sumy as “extremely dire, with residents facing critical and potentially fatal shortages of food, water and medicine”.
That assessment followed the bombing of a theatre in Mariupol on Wednesday, targeted despite clearly visible lettering daubed on the ground outside the building, indicating that “Children” were sheltering inside.
In the country’s eastern regions, or oblasts, needs “are becoming even more urgent”, said UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh. “More than 200,000 people are now without access to water across several localities in Donetsk oblast, while the constant shelling in Luhansk region has destroyed 80 per cent of some localities, leaving 97,800 families without power.”
In Odessa, UNHCR reported that the authorities have appealed for support for general food assistance to cover the needs of 450,000 people in the city, as well as medicine.
“As of 17 March, a permanent consultation point for protection, legal, and social matters is functioning at the Odessa railway station where 600 to 800 individuals transit daily on their way from Mykolaiv to the western oblasts of Ukraine,” the UN agency reported.
According to UNHCR, more than 3.2 million people have now fled Ukraine, and millions more are internally displaced, some of the 13 million hardest-hit by the war.
Those who have left Ukraine have found shelter in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Russia and to a much lesser extent, Belarus. Ninety per cent are women and children and 162,000 are third-country nationals.
“They don’t have a plan when they arrive,” said Mr. Saltmarsh. “So many of those in the first phase might have had friends, diaspora networks, contacts, a relative to whom they could go and stay with initially and then make a plan from there. That’s been less the case recently.”
To counter the risk of exploitation of these vulnerable new arrivals, UNHCR and UNICEF have set up safe spaces known as “Blue Dots” in six countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
These facilities are “one-stop-shops, and safe spaces which provide a minimum set of
protection services for children, families and others with specific needs, in support of
existing services and government efforts,” UNHCR explained.
Also providing help to victims of the conflict, UN migration agency IOM said that last year it identified and assisted over 1,000 victims of trafficking.
IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon added that a telephone hotline that the agency set up in the last nine days has so far received more than 10,000 phone calls, more than half of which were related to trafficking concerns.
“We’re working with our many partners on the ground to ensure that these protective messages and these efforts that are being made at the border to inform people are then structured in a coherent manner, not just for the people who are coming across the borders, but for border guards and for volunteers working at these border points in reception centres and indeed for IOM staff on the ground.”
With a solid agreement on continued and safe humanitarian access still proving elusive, Jens Laerke from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) urged both sides to the armed conflict “to agree with each other a mechanism of the modalities, standard operating procedures into actually minute detail how such safe passages - either for movement of humanitarian supplies, or on the other hand, for evacuation of civilians - how that can be established”.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
Gaza ‘hungriest place on earth’ with aid stymied – UN humanitarians
Starving Gazans continue to be deprived of aid as international relief efforts are being severely constrained by the Israeli authorities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNRWA
As a controversial United States and Israel-backed aid distribution plan gets underway in Gaza, the UN called on Tuesday for an “immediate surge” of its own pre-positioned supplies to help prevent starvation.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani today urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject a bill that was recently endorsed by parliament allowing trials of civilians in military courts. The Uganda People’s Defence Forces Amendment Bill 2025, which was passed on 20 May and now awaits presidential signature to become law, among others broadens the jurisdiction of military courts, authorising them to try a wide range of offences against civilians.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango today warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan at the bi-weekly briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Syria: ‘Staggering’ needs amid insecurity, health care crisis - UN humanitarians
Millions of people in Syria continue to face mortal danger from unexploded munitions, disease and malnutrition and urgent support is required, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , OCHA , WHO
UN life-saving aid allowed to trickle into Gaza as civilian needs mount
Amid calls for more humanitarian trucks to enter the food and medicine-deprived Palestinian enclave of Gaza, UN humanitarians have received permission from Israel for “around 100” more aid trucks to cross into the Strip after only five were let in yesterday, But the scale of relief efforts allowed remains entirely insufficient to meet the urgent needs of people there, humanitarian workers say.
1
1
1
Edited News
A war reporter from Lebanon who lost a limb in the line of duty is calling for an end to impunity for attacks against journalists.
1
1
1
Edited News | ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) commemorated 160 years dedicated to connecting the world on Saturday, 17 May in Geneva, Switzerland, during the annual World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , OCHA
Gazans ‘in terror’ after another night of deadly strikes and siege
Amid reports that Israeli strikes across Gaza into Friday killed at least 64 people, aid teams once again pushed back strongly at allegations that aid is being diverted to Hamas and pleaded for the blockade to end.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Deportations over recent months of large numbers of non-nationals from the United States of America, especially to countries other than those of their origin, raise a number of human rights concerns, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Over 50 child malnutrition deaths amid aid blockade; entire generation will be ‘permanently affected’ - WHO
In the aid desert of Gaza, malnourished children are dying while survivors can expect a lifetime of dire health problems, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNICEF , UNRWA
Israel’s aid plan will force Gaza families to choose ‘between displacement and death’ – UN humanitarians
Israel’s plan to take control of relief assistance in Gaza risks increasing the suffering of families already exhausted by 18 months of war by putting their lives in danger and inciting more displacement, using aid as “bait”, UN humanitarians said on Friday.