The Ukrainian Government must intensify its efforts to meet the needs and protect the rights of the hundreds of thousands of people internally displaced by the country’s ongoing conflict, an independent United Nations human rights expert affirmed today.
Two months after the crash of a Malaysia Airlines flight over Ukraine that killed 298 people on board, the top United Nations political official updated the Security Council on developments related to the investigation of the incident.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is rolling out its first operation in Ukraine, providing food assistance to vulnerable people affected by the conflict with distributions in transit centres and public shelters in Donetsk and Luhansk in the country’s east.
The number of people killed in Ukraine has topped 3,000 and could be “significantly higher,” a senior United Nations human rights official said today, as he urgently appealed for a sustainable peace to spare the country “a winter of horrors.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the news of a ceasefire in Ukraine and called for its full implementation, adding his hope that the cessation of hostilities will further allow the United Nations and partners to deliver critical humanitarian assistance to those affected by fighting.
The number of displaced people in eastern Ukraine has risen dramatically in recent weeks due to the ongoing fighting in the country, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today, warning of corresponding increases in the need for humanitarian aid for civilians in the region.
