A recent sharp rise in deadly attacks against civilians in Ukraine and Russia, including by armed drones, run counter to international law and must end now, top UN officials told the Security Council on Friday afternoon.
Nearly two years since Russian forces launched a “full-blown war and occupation” of Ukraine, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths on Monday issued an urgent appeal together with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) for $4.2 billion.
Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, and now the authorities in Ukraine with the support of the United Nations are planning ahead for their eventual return.
Civilians continue to pay a horrendous price in the war in Ukraine, with nearly 10,000 dead and tens of thousands injured since conflict began in February 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country said in a report published on Wednesday.
A refugee from Afghanistan who moved to Ukraine two decades ago has been talking about his motivation for supporting the relief effort for people affected by the ongoing war there.
The mayor of a city in southern Ukraine has described its inhabitants as “heroes” and has pledged the city will emerge from the full-scale invasion of his country as a model for other urban areas devastated by the war, even as residents cope with an overnight attack on Thursday.
Alexander Lobov, a military engineer and mine action expert with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), has worked in hotspots from Afghanistan to Somalia, but never imagined using this experience in his native country, Ukraine, now one of the world’s most heavily mined places since Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022.
Plans to help the people of Ukraine following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam are centred on saving people “right now”, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths told UN News in an interview on Friday.
With Ukraine’s Children’s Day celebrations on Thursday marred by the death of a girl alongside other civilians in a Russian missile attack in the capital Kyiv, the UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Denise Brown, said she was “shocked and saddened” by the incident.
Child casualties in Ukraine have hit a “tragic milestone”, the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday, as the UN human rights office (OHCHR) released its latest report on rising numbers of deaths and injuries in the country since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
