UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OCHA/HCR Press Conference - Ukraine Emergency Appeals

[Other language spoken]

Welcome to this press conference in Geneva.

As you know, the dire situation in Ukraine has motivated the Secretary General to announce that today, Tuesday, 1st of March, we were going to launch humanitarian appeals to come to the support of the people of Ukraine.

For this we have today the great pleasure to have with us Martin Griffiths, the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Filippo Grandi, the UN **** Commissioner for Refugees.

Just a couple of housekeeping rules.

We will really keep this to half an hour because at 3:00, as we have announced this morning, a virtual joint launch of the Humanitarian Fresh Appeal and the Regional Refugee Response Plan for Ukraine event will be taking place.

It will be introduced and the first speaker on that particular event will be our Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

She will be moderated by Melissa Fleming and Mr Griffiths and Mr Grande will also be participating in this event.

Just put your phone off, please.

And I will start by giving the floor to Martin Griffiths and then to Filippo Grandi for initial remarks, and then we will take the questions.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks very much indeed.

We've all been watching the frightening scenes of fear and devastation in Ukraine in recent days.

And I should recognise your efforts, in fact, and your colleagues in Ukraine and elsewhere, bringing those scenes to our screens and ensuring that we do not claim any ignorance of what is happening in Ukraine.

We see families with small children hunkering down in basements and subway stations.

We see people running for their lives to the sound of explosions and wailing sirens.

And we at the UN, here I am with my friend Filippo, stand with the Ukrainians as we will hear in their hour of need.

Yesterday in the Security Council again, we were together and we appealed for a cessation of hostilities, a pause to silence the gun.

Give people some sense of hope that this will end.

A call indeed, as you know, that the secretary general of the United Nations has repeated in previous days.

We remain hopeful, as he does, that peace is possible.

[Other language spoken]

But but much damage has already been done.

There's been extensive damage to people's homes.

We believe that hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.

And we will hear more from Filippo.

And many more have fled, of course, as Filippo will speak to it, shelling and bombing have already damaged water pipes, electricity lines, basic services.

Hundreds of thousands of families are without drinking water.

That's a hint, I think.

Sorry.

Every day the military operation continues to add to the human toll.

We, the humanitarian agencies are staying and doing everything we can to scale up our response.

And indeed, we have been doing this for some weeks as a contingency planning in the event, in the case of the escalation that we're now seeing when and where possible.

And working particularly with our local Ukrainian partners, our colleagues, UNHCR certainly have been risking their lives to deliver basic relief services to people locked down in their homes.

Ukrainian authorities, healthcare professionals continue to serve their people.

They're attending in attending to the injured, running search and rescue operations, helping to evacuate, but they need our help.

And so as we've heard today, we're launching A humanitarian appeal for the Ukraine crisis with two components, a three month flash appeal for the situation inside the country, which I have been coordinating, and a regional response plan for the situation beyond Ukraine's borders, which Filippo leads and we'll talk about.

The plans are coordinated.

They have been developed in synergy and in complementarity with each other.

The flash appeal for response inside Ukraine, which I'm responsible for coordinating, will need $1.1 billion in funding for three months to help 6 million of the most vulnerable in Ukraine for that three months.

And of those 6,000,000, we calculate over a million will be internally displaced.

And I think the important point there is that those in need are not only those who move, but those in need will be those whose basic services have been destroyed, whose pensions have been stopped, whose Internet has been, has been, has stopped, whose Healthcare is, is necessary.

So the plan provides for the delivery through cash assistance.

We see cash assistance which is a very effective means of delivering aid, especially in context do we see inside Ukraine.

Up to 40% of that appeal will go through cash assistance.

One of the advantages of cash assistance is that you can deliver straight to the beneficiary accountably and you don't need to go above ground to do it.

[Other language spoken]

And the agencies are doing that and we're working with 119 partners together, 119 humanitarian agencies, 119 are involved in these operations.

We'll provide healthcare, food, sanitation, shelter, psychosocial counselling in close collaboration with our local partners.

Women and girls needs, as always we see in these situations, must be specially looked after and everybody's protection insured.

Today we ask for those resources to implement that plan.

The crisis has turned very ugly very fast.

We must turn that initial shock and disbelief and uncertainty about the days to come into compassion and solidarity with the millions of ordinary Ukraine Ukrainians who now need emergency relief and protection.

And unusually for OCHA, we have received over $1,000,000 through, in effect, unsolicited personal donations.

I'm sure you have much more, but they're flooding in from all over the world, over 10,000 donations to OTRA alone for the needs of people in Ukraine.

And finally, I want to reiterate that to do this, we need the resources, but we need the protection and unimpeded access for humanitarian workers.

And we are working very closely with all those responsible who can deliver on their obligations onto international humanitarian law to make this so.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, USG Griffiths.

And I'll give the preference initial remarks to **** Commissioner Grandy.

[Other language spoken]

Well, first of all, like Martin just said, we spoke to the Security Council yesterday.

So you find much of what we think and our reflections and our comments on the situation in our respective statements which are public.

But let me also join Martin in saying that the most pressing point or appeal remains the need to stop hostilities, to stop fighting.

I will just share a few thoughts as part of this launch with you about the displacement aspect of this crisis.

The displacement is caused by the fear of bombs, by the fear of destruction, and therefore unless that stops, we are likely to see a further escalation of, of displacement inside and outside.

And given the figures that you know already, but that I'm, I'm about to update for you in a few seconds, you understand very well, and I tried to convey this yesterday to the Security Council, is that humanitarians will do their utmost to continue to work under the present conditions, which are very dangerous inside Ukraine and quite dramatic logistically outside Ukraine.

But nobody should imagine that humanitarians can solve this problem.

This is simply to try to bring some help to the people affected by the.

But the numbers that we are beginning to see are extremely worrying.

Last night at the Security Council I reported 520,000 refugees.

Now less than 24 hours before.

The latest figure I just got it is 677,000, so another 150,000 added in less than 24 hours.

We observe from the borders queues of 10s of kilometres of vehicles on the other side of the border, people waiting several days by now to be able to many hours and sometimes days to cross into neighbouring countries.

And an observation here, these are people that you know, observation are still anecdotal because we don't have much present and we have we then don't have much mobility inside Ukraine to be able to monitor properly.

But these are probably people with cars, people with some resources, people with connections in in European countries that are moving now first.

But it is likely that if the military offensive continues and urban centres, I hit one after the other, that we will see more and more people with less resources, with less connections, more vulnerable in every respect.

And that is really what worries us more.

The figures, just to the figures are, I would say about half of this.

I don't have the detailed breakdown of the 677, but about half are in Poland.

This is the country that is clearly, as we predicted, receiving most refugees, about 90,000, probably a little bit more.

Forgive me if the figures are a bit fluid.

Have gone to Hungary, almost 60,000 to Moldova, almost 50,000 to Slovakia and almost or I would say by now 40,000 in Romania.

These are the countries most impacted.

Again, these are figures that are relatively reliable.

But remember, people move, sometimes they move even from 1 of this country to the other.

So we've tried to do all possible a calculation to avoid double counting, but it is in the end a bit of an estimate.

But it is a large estimate and it is, I think, how it should be.

There's people already moving to to other countries.

This morning I was talking to the Czech foreign minister, for example, who's here for the Human Rights Council.

He was telling me that already several thousands have moved to the Czech Republic, which has a huge Ukrainian community, and this is what will happen.

People will move to where Ukrainian communities are present and and they will in a way self distribute themselves for the time being through through Europe.

We're also aware that a number of people, we don't have precise statistics, have moved from eastern Ukraine into the Russian Federation.

This is what we actually saw also in 2014 during the initial phase of the conflict.

About the appeal, Let me just compliment what?

Oh, sorry, I want to add, forgive me.

I want to add 1 point about the arrivals.

There are always also besides Ukrainian refugees, third country nationals among the arrivals.

And forgive me, but I don't have the precise statistics.

It's too early to be able to say, but it's a sizeable number.

Now who are these people?

These are people that are workers in Ukraine or students if you are actually refugees in Ukraine from other countries.

So it's quite a mixed group of people and you've seen reports in the media that they are, there are different treatments used, you know, with Ukrainians and non Ukrainians.

Now our observations and we possibly cannot observe every single post yet, but our observation is that these are not state policies.

But there are instances in which it has happened that there's been a different treatment.

And you must have seen the statements of the Secretary General, my own statement yesterday at the Security Council stating very clearly that there should be absolutely no discrimination between Ukrainians and on Ukrainians, Europeans and non Europeans, everybody is fleeing from the same risks.

And you may have seen the important statement of the Polish representative at the, I don't know.

I think he was the Ambassador at the General Assembly yesterday emphasising that it is not a policy of the Polish government, which I think is very important.

And we will continue to intervene as we have done several times to try to ensure that everybody is received in the same manner.

And by the way, on the Third Country Nationals, which is an important part of this operation, IOM has the lead role because this is really their expertise and they know how to conduct these operations well and they would be working with the with governments Regarding back to the appeal to complement Martin, the appeal for neighbouring countries is inevitably less developed than the appeal inside because the appeal inside is an evolution of the current operation.

The appeal outside is a completely new operation.

We haven't had enough time yet to discuss with all the governments, but we have a fairly good picture of the initial needs for the first few months, $550 million.

This is what we're appealing for today.

This is UNHCR and 12 partner agencies and they are part of this appeal as well.

And you can imagine, you know, the big pieces which I will explain later, are that everybody, like I said, and have access to safety, to protection, to international protection, that humanitarian aid is adequate, especially for the most vulnerable, that we work also with civil society searching for solutions.

People will have to find places to stay in countries where they arrive or further afield.

And of course, through this appeal, UNHR will also ensure the coordination at least of the actors participating in the appeal.

You understand, we're talking about European countries.

We're talking about countries that are mostly except Moldova, members of the European Union.

So they have the resources to to respond and the Brussels, the European Commission, we've been in close touch.

They are stepping up their direct support to these countries.

The role of the UN, of international NGO, of national NGO will be very important as expert organisation and in many different areas.

Registration, transport services, especially consideration for the vulnerable, shelter, winter items, water and sanitation, education, health service, psychosocial support.

We have a lot of expertise in all these areas that we can make available.

We will have especially we at UNHCR, but many of our partners as well.

In particular attention to protection aspect of the response.

There is a very large population of women and children, a very **** proportion, a very **** proportion of unaccompanied children.

I'm very happy that UNICEF will have a lead role in that respect.

And of course also in terms of women, you know very well sadly that the risk of gender based violence is very **** in this situation of violence and **** mobility.

So we will have to have a particular particular attention for those for those risk.

And of course, remember, although there seems to be little talk about that suddenly after two years, but we're still in a pandemic mode.

So there will be also some aspect related to COVID related measures that will have to be taken.

We will ask donors, I think I can speak for both of us for quick contributions, for flexible contributions because the situation is very fluid.

We don't know basically what it will be like in a couple of weeks and, and strong support to the countries receiving.

And we will point to the donors as I have done last night at the Security Council and Martin just did it that the private sector, private individuals have we UNHR has already received more than $40 million in private contributions from individuals or companies.

This, this is unprecedented.

I've never seen it.

And I think it's, it's, it's positive.

And I want to conclude by saying that we need to be careful and Martin knows this better than me because he coordinates all these appeals.

But we enter a month in which we will appeal for funds for Yemen, we will appeal for funds for Afghanistan, we will appeal for funds for Syria, we will appeal for some funds for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

The concern is that, of course, an emergency that has so much visibility and how can I say absorbing power takes attention away from other situations in which people suffer equally and need equal support.

So a strong appeal, please help us make this appeal resonate that it's the world is messy and that means that unfortunately we have to ask for more and more resources.

But all of these situations are equally important.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, **** Commissioner.

I'll open the floor to question by reminding everybody that in 10 minutes Sharp, we have to close this press conference to connect to the event with the Secretary General.

I'll start from the room.

I'll start with Laurent Sierra of the Swiss News Agency.

[Other language spoken]

It seems that there there has been some critics by some governments in the way the UN family prepared at the before the crisis happened at the borders and that they could have been with the warnings more prepositioning and and more emergency teams near the border at day one.

Are you satisfied with the way the response was led and, and what could be done more?

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, I, I think that criticism is misplaced.

There was an an enormous effort by all the agencies both in in the regional operations that Filippo has been describing, but also the ones inside the country to scale up.

We all sent to an experienced staff.

We all were involved in contingency planning.

One of the features of this operation inside Ukraine is cash.

This is not a prepositioned stock.

So there's a mobility, a swiftness of delivery.

So, but I would, I would, I would turn that back to those governments, many of whom were saying there isn't going to be a crisis, don't talk about a crisis, don't provide extra assistance to those of us who were now placed in this position.

And that's because the events were uncertain right until the last day.

Humanitarian preparedness for the scale, as Filippo has been striving to, the scale of what we're about to see is honest is it is, is a demand that has not been placed upon us before.

But I think we're ready.

We have stayed there, we have experienced staff and country.

We are sending in a new Secretary General appointment of a crisis coordinator to lead the operation inside Ukraine.

Amin Awad, formerly with UNHCR, many years known to the region.

[Other language spoken]

Can I add on the outside, fully agree with Martin.

Also remember there was a very great deal of discretion that was necessary before the military action started about these issues.

But we've been talking to governments for many weeks, if not months.

And remember, this is the at least outside Ukraine, this is the type of operation that will be mostly led by governments.

We are there in a supporting capacity, in an expert capacity.

And I think that is being played already.

We have already deployed in the last 4-5 days, 50 people, 50 experienced emergency staff to all countries in the region and all that was ready to go.

And so I, I also would like to say that I think we were prepared.

By the way, can I take this opportunity?

I forgot to mention I'm leaving tomorrow.

I'm going to Romania, to Moldova and to Poland in the next few days to review with governments these measures and to prepare for further arrivals.

Thank you very much to both.

[Other language spoken]

A question for the **** Commissioner, please.

I was wondering what is your expectation for how countries should share the hosting responsibilities for these refugees?

[Other language spoken]

Should it go beyond the current host countries?

Should the US play a role?

Or is it a global responsibility?

Talk me through that please.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry to give you a general response to begin with.

[Other language spoken]

The preamble of the Refugee Convention says that refugees are an international responsibility.

So that's the first question, the first answer.

But to be more practical, the European Union has been discussing the giving refugees from Ukraine temporary protection status, or rather activating the directive on international protection, which is a 2001 directive, which is very important.

[Other language spoken]

I don't want to say something wrong that it has ever been applied before.

This is important because it would give for one year initially to all refugees from Ukraine, a status without going through complex procedures.

So it would be a fairly straightforward recognition of their needs to be protected, their need to be protected.

And that's very important first step.

Now, at the moment, in a practical way, I think that somehow Ukrainian refugees are self distributing throughout the Union according to where they have anchoring.

And I think this is not pushed back at the moment because the numbers are still manageable.

Of course, should the number increase, then the European Union will have to look at and should people without those links start arriving, then that will become an issue.

And as we know, it has been a very difficult issue.

But this is for the European Union to decide and let's see how the situation evolves.

You know, in a way it is interesting and I think I can say that, that the tragedy, the tragedy of the of, of what's happening in Ukraine and of the arrival of this enormous refugee wave is likely to introduce a new dimension to the many years long debate in Europe on asylum, on responsibility sharing and so forth.

So it will be interesting to see what emerges after the fog is gone, after the dust settles, Hopefully it settles soon because this will, you know, I, I hope it is an eye opener to all European countries that any European country can be impacted by arrivals or refugees and will require the solidarity of others.

I go now to the platform.

The first question is from Frank Jordan, Associated Press.

Hello, Frank Jordan's AP Mr Griffiths, what's your what is your damage assessment and how many civilians in Kharkiv have been hit?

How are humanitarian operations being conducted there, if at all?

TSG Griffiths Yeah, I'll be very brief.

We don't have a damage assessment of Kharkiv.

You, you, we are at the moment in these.

I think it's what it is a day three, day five of of the of the escalation managing to to hunker down, to plan to assess through local partners.

But at the moment what we've done in this appeal is to pull together again based on the previous experience, because we've been there for eight years.

And as Felipe said, we've we've seen 2014 based on this experience, what we think is likely to happen.

I we were asked a question yesterday by the representative of the Russian Federation and the Security Council as to whether we had a view about the use of weaponry and civilian in civilian areas.

You know, it's, it's a bit early to expect under the circumstances that are happening either in Kharkiv or elsewhere for international monitors to go out and make these assessments.

Our assessments are based on experience and based on wide general experience as well.

So those assessments will come and that's the next stage once we get out and about to see the scale of need in detail.

[Other language spoken]

I'm told we can take one more question, Last question from Catherine Hlan, Combo Conga, Franz von Kat.

[Other language spoken]

My question is regarding despite the great generosity and solidarity that is expressed for the moment by the neighbouring countries, don't you fear that on the long run we see a situation as the one with the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, that's local population starts to to to have to to wear the burden of the the refugees.

[Other language spoken]

I think I don't know if you can really compare little Lebanon with all it's huge challenges with huge Europe and it's both it's size and space and opportunities.

But I think your question is very relevant that in any situation where you have a lot of refugees, uh, you see a surge of generosity in many situation, you see a surge of generosity at the beginning.

But if the situation is protracted, if the numbers like in this case go up a lot, I think we, we, there are risks that this hospitality wears out.

And This is why the appeal of today is so important.

That international community shows from day one it's solidarity with the countries affected, in addition to Ukrainians in Ukraine, of course.

So that, but at least that negative impact is mitigated a bit.

Thank you very much.

We would have many more questions, but unfortunately, I have to stop here at the press conference and ask everybody.

First of all, thank very much our speakers.

Thank you all for having participated.

And we have, unfortunately, to close this because as I have said, at 3:00, we will start the joint launch of the Humanitarian Flesh Appeal and the Regional Refugee Response Plan for Ukraine together with the Secretary General in New York and our speakers at an event moderated by the US Chief for Global Communication, Melissa Fleming.

I hope you'll be able to all follow this event on Web TV.

Thank you very much.

Have a nice afternoon.

OCHA/HCR Press Conference - Ukraine Emergency Appeals - 01 March 2022