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War in Ukraine should not be “new normal”: children study in the subway tunnels of Kharkiv, UN official says
A surge of attacks by Russian forces on the Kharkiv area of Ukraine is causing significant civilian casualties, as well as the destruction of homes and of crucial infrastructure, the top UN official in Ukraine said today, in a plea to not “normalize” the dire conditions for Ukrainian civilians.
“There has been a very clear intensification of the war over the past couple of months,” said Denise Brown, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine. “On my last trip to Ukraine two weeks ago, there were 12 sirens during the day and 12 explosions. There's a constant disruption to daily life in the city of Kharkiv,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Russian military staged a fresh incursion on Kharkiv region on 10 May, seizing the town of Vovchansk and intensifying aerial attacks on Kharkiv city, Ukraine’s second largest urban center, with some one million inhabitants fearing for their lives.
A total of nearly ten million people - children included- are estimated by the World Health Organization to be at risk of acute Post-Traumatic Syndrome Disease (PTSD) in Ukraine. Meanwhile, some four million children across the country have had their education disrupted, and 600,000 of them are unable to access in-person school at all, according to UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.
In the city of Kharkiv, the only way children can safely study is in the subterranean tunnels of the metro, Ms. Brown said, having witnessed this recently, when she visited the underground with the city’s mayor. “My initial reaction was that classrooms look like regular classrooms: full of children, teachers, full of the energy and enthusiasm that children have. My second thought was: ‘but this isn't normal’. It's not normal that children have to study, underground.”
Ms. Brown recently attended the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, where 14 countries and international organizations renewed their support for recovery, reconstruction and reform in Ukraine. Asked about her participation in the upcoming Swiss-organized Ukraine peace conference at the Bürgenstock resort this weekend, she clarified that the “UN is an observer, not a member state. So, whoever is going will be in listening mode.” She echoed the position of the UN Secretary-General to say that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is “a violation of the UN Charter.”
“We hope for a just peace for Ukraine,” Ms. Brown said, “and as I've said repeatedly in my remarks, the rest of the world should not normalize the war in Ukraine.”
After 28 months of war, the scale of humanitarian needs is vast. More than 32,000 civilian casualties, including 11,000 deaths, have been verified — but the real number is likely much higher. Thirty per cent of pre-war jobs have been erased and poverty increased from five to 25 per cent. Over 14.6 million people, 40 per cent of the population will need humanitarian assistance in 2024. The humanitarian community has appealed for US$3.1 billion to providing life-saving assistance to 8.5 million of the most vulnerable for 2024.
ends
Speakers, agencies spokespersons:
· Denise Brown, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine
TRT: 02’16”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 14 June 2024 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Press briefing by Denise Brown in Geneva
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: Palais des Nations
- Wide shot of the podium with speakers at the press conference room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Denise Brown, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine: “I would like to really speak to you about Kharkiv and give you a flavor of what's happening in that part of Ukraine where there has been a very clear intensification of the war over the past couple of months.”
- Wide and lateral shot of the press room
- SOUNDBITE (English) Denise Brown, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine: “We have over 100 UN staff based in the city of Kharkiv. I'm there quite often. And on my last trip there, two weeks ago, there were 12 sirens during the day and 12 explosions. So, there's a constant disruption to daily life in the city of Kharkiv.”
- Medium shot: journalists in the press conference room
- SOUNDBITE (English) Denise Brown, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine: “Children: you've heard the reports, but probably you haven't gone to the schools in the metro. I have, and it's the only way children can safely study in the city of Kharkiv. And, you know, my initial reaction when I go down with the mayor into the bowels of the metro and come across classrooms which look like regular classrooms full of children, teachers learning science, learning math, full of the energy and enthusiasm that children have, my second thought was: ‘but, this isn't normal’. It's not normal that children have to study underground.”
- Medium lateral shot of the press conference room
- SOUNDBITE (English) Denise Brown, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine: “The UN is an observer, not a member state. So, whoever is going (to Bürgenstock) will be in listening mode. And again, just to repeat what the Secretary General has said since the very beginning, this is a violation of the (UN) Charter. We hope for a just peace for Ukraine, and as I've said just repeatedly in my remarks, the rest of the world should not normalize the war in Ukraine.”
- Medium shot of the podium with speakers
- Various shots of journalists listening in the press conference room
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