UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher has said that 13 million people in Ukraine are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
Briefing the Security Council on the plight of Ukrainians, the UN relief chief called on the international community to provide assistance and support. He stressed the need for warring parties to protect civilians in accordance with international law.
He said that around 3.7 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war, and 700,000 are currently living as refugees. Similarly, humanitarian workers say they are unable to reach an estimated 1.5 million civilians in the Russian-occupied Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions.
Despite growing needs, the $2.6 billion UN-led humanitarian response plan in Ukraine has received only 17 percent of the required funding. Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia has said that Ukrainian media are deliberately portraying his country as a country that is undermining peace efforts. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Kristina Hyovyshin, has said that Russia must be held accountable for its aggressive actions in its country. She also said that real pressure is needed to end the war, not just through talks.
Hyovishin said Russia should immediately respond to the US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire and end its aggressive war against Ukraine. Acting Representative Dorothy Shea, representing the United States, said her country is committed to achieving a just and lasting peace. She noted that the United States has proposed a complete ceasefire in its bilateral engagements with Russia and Ukraine.
Stating that the ceasefire commitments already made by Ukraine and Russia must be fully implemented to maintain peace, he said that if fully implemented, lives and livelihoods would be improved.
