“The lives and security of millions of people in eastern Ukraine are at stake as we await a political breakthrough in the current impasse. The human suffering of a recurring conflict would be limitless. It would lead to huge civilian casualties and displacement, as well as a tremendous increase in humanitarian needs, “he warned. Jan EgelandThe Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, will visit Ukraine this week.
“I met countless exhausted and freezing elderly people on the front lines. We cannot go to another war among hundreds of thousands of retirees, “he added.
The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine is now eight years old. It still places heavy demands on civilians. Nearly 3 million people are turning to humanitarian aid and more than 850,000 have been displaced.
Active hostilities would dramatically exacerbate the current humanitarian situation, where needs are already high due to years of violence. It would destroy already damaged civilian infrastructure, further restrict the movement of people, deny access to communities in need and disrupt key public services such as water, electricity, transport and banking.
It also triggered massive new refugees as millions of people in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions would be threatened.
“I have not seen my daughter or granddaughter for two long years because the border crossings between our divided Luhansk and Donetsk communities are almost closed due to the conflict and Covid-19. Now we are threatening to make our desperate situation worse. We need peace and freedom of movement,” NatalyaUkrainian grandmother living near the borders of the conflict.
The conflict would undo the improvements made to the humanitarian situation in recent years. The number of people in need fell from five million in 2015 to a projected 3 million in 2022.
“Today we should have been talking about the achievements of the humanitarian situation. But our progress is in danger of being erased in an instant, and thousands of families who have just begun to recover are in danger of being at the center of active hostilities,” Egeland said.
The parties to the conflict must give priority to escalation and refrain from all hostility, including unusual acts of aggression. These include disseminating false information and disrupting the provision of essential services. All other results must be the starting point for a diplomatic solution, while all parties must fully respect international law.
Facts and figures:
- The number of civilian casualties in the conflict has exceeded 3,000, and more than 7,000 have been injured since 2014. 50,000 houses are damaged or destroyed.
- Of the 3 million people in need in 2022, 1.3 million will live under government control and 1.6 million under non-government control.
- The UN Humanitarian Aid Plan $ 190 million is required for 2022 to help 1.8 million people.
- Ukraine is the “oldest” humanitarian crisis in the world, with about 30 percent of those in need of assistance being elderly.
- The UN estimates that there are 854,000 internally displaced persons in Ukraine.
- Eastern Ukraine is divided by a 427-kilometer-long front line with 7 border crossings. Since March 2020, movement across this line has been significantly restricted. The number of exceedances has fallen by more than 90% from more than 1.2 million a month before the Covid-19 pandemic to less than 100,000 a month.
- Ukraine is one of them most mine-contaminated areas in the world. It ranks fifth in the world in terms of civilian casualties caused by landmines and explosive remnants of war, and in the top three in vehicle mine accidents. Nearly 70 percent of civilian casualties were caused by landmines and explosives after July 2020.
- The NRC has been working in Ukraine since 2014 and has helped more than 700,000 people with food, shelter, water, sanitation and legal assistance.
Source: Norwegian Refugee Council
Source: The Nordic Page