UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Ukraine Crisis Update WHO - OCHA - FAO

Ukraine: aid convoy reaches war-battered Kharkiv, Mariupol fears remain

Urgently needed aid supplies have reached the embattled Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, amid reports that people are facing “life-and-death decisions” on whether to leave Mariupol and elsewhere, more than a month since the Russian invasion.

On Monday, relief reached “the hard-battered” city of Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine “and safely delivered food rations, medical supplies and household items for thousands of people,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian coordinating office, OCHA.

To the south, in Mariupol and other Ukrainian locations that have been encircled and pummelled by indiscriminate shelling, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that he the crisis was “deepening…the level of death, destruction and suffering that we are witnessing and that is being inflicted on civilians is abhorrent and unacceptable”.

Briefing journalists in Geneva, ICRC spokesperson Ewan Watson reiterated serious concerns about civilians who have no safe means of escape, and who have faced constant shelling, while also lacking running water and other essentials.

According to OCHA, around 90 per cent of Mariupol’s residential buildings – some 2,600 homes – have been affected by active fighting.

Some 60 per cent of buildings have suffered various degrees of damage from direct shelling, while about 40 per cent have been completely destroyed. Local authorities say the rising civilian death toll is fast-approaching 5,000 people.

“Today civilians are taking life-and-death decisions to flee when there is no ceasefire or other agreements in place that will allow them to leave safely,” said ICRC’s Mr. Watson. “Time is running out for citizens in Mariupol and in other frontline areas who have now gone for weeks with no humanitarian assistance.”

In Kharkiv, where Monday’s UN aid convoy was led by the UN’s top aid official in Ukraine, Osnat Lubrani, the supplies will now be distributed by the Ukrainian Red Cross to the most vulnerable communities in the city, as well as the hard-to-reach suburbs Izium, Balakliia and Chuhuiv.

“There are UNICEF supplies for 6,000 people, UNHCR items for 500 households that include things such as solar lamps, tarpaulins and blankets, WFP food rations for 3,325 people for two weeks, WHO supplies to care for 10,000 primary health care patients for three months, and supplies to treat trauma patients,” said OCHA spokesperson Mr. Laerke.

Briefing journalists in Geneva, he noted that the city’s municipal authorities had reported “that more than 1,140 buildings have been destroyed since the military offensive began” on 24 February. “Of these, nearly 1,000 are residential buildings. This raises serious concerns about both the shelter and protection needs of people.”

Highlighting the risks faced by medical workers and patients in Ukraine, Dr Jarno Habicht, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Ukraine, said that there have now been “74 attacks with 72 deaths and 40 injuries in the period of 24 February until 25 March…These attacks are against hospitals, ambulances.”

Dr Habicht confirmed that medical goods were “much-needed in the facilities where the doctors and nurses are doing much of the work, almost 24/7 in these very difficult circumstances”.

Equally worrying are fears that Ukrainians may soon be facing serious food insecurity because of the ongoing conflict, which has already disrupted livelihoods during the agricultural growing season.

The alert from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) follows assessments in 19 of Ukraine’s 24 oblasts, or regions, which indicated that it was uncertain whether Ukraine could harvest crops, plant new ones or sustain livestock production.

“An immediate and worrying finding is that food shortages are expected immediately or in the next three months in over 40 per cent of the surveyed areas and cases,” said Rein Paulsen, FAO Director, Office of Emergencies and Resilience.

“When it comes to the all-important production of vegetables, conflict is likely to severely disrupt production for tens of thousands of smallholder farmers, those who have decided to stay behind.”

To help support the relief effort, FAO has appealed for $50 million but it is only 10 per cent funded.

Nonetheless, it has been possible to support more than 14,600 farming families by providing them with more than 740 tonnes of urgently needed seed for planting, Mr. Paulsen explained.

ends

Ukraine Crisis Update WHO - OCHA - FAO - ICRC 29 March 2022

Similar Stories