Highlights of the noon briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for Secretary-General António Guterres

Our humanitarian colleagues estimate that now 1.9 million people have been internally displaced, and more than 2.3 million people have now crossed international borders out of Ukraine, and this is according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Three things are critical in the short term, as Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths has stressed: civilians, whether they stay or leave, must be respected and protected; safe passage is needed for humanitarian supplies; and we need a system of constant communications with parties to the conflict.

In terms of response, humanitarian organizations are deploying additional staff across the country and are working to move supplies to warehouses in different hubs within Ukraine and outside. So far, we - along with our partners - have reached more than 500,000 people with some form of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine, including life-saving food, shelter, blankets, and medical supplies. If humanitarian access is secured, we are set to reach much higher numbers given the scope and scale of the humanitarian operations being currently deployed.

The UN Refugee Agency tells us that by 9 March, yesterday, it had delivered 85 metric tons of humanitarian assistance to reception and transit centres in Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, which is hosting people who have fled hostilities further east.

For its part, the World Food Programme today said it is deeply concerned about the impact of conflict on Ukraine’s food security and the waning ability of families in embattled areas to feed themselves. 

WFP plans to assist up to 3.1 million people. Their priority is to supply cities inside Ukraine with bulk food, bread, and food rations. 

With consignments of food assistance arriving every day, WFP is in a race against time to pre-position food in areas where fighting is expected to flare. 

For its part its sister agency in Rome, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that the coming weeks will be critical as farmers will need to prepare land for sowing vegetables in the middle of March. 

Likewise, between February and May, FAO said that farmers need to start preparing land for planting wheat, barley, maize and sunflowers. FAO stressed that all efforts should be made to protect harvests and livestock and I think we all know the critical role the Ukrainian market for grain is to the rest of the world.

Today, the UN Children’s Fund said that more than 1 million children have now fled Ukraine as the fighting continues to ravage the country. UNICEF said that so far, six trucks carrying nearly 70 tons of supplies have arrived in Ukraine. The supplies include personal protection equipment and medical, surgical and obstetric kits.

Working with its partners, UNICEF teams in Ukraine will be delivering medical supplies to 22 hospitals in 5 different conflict-affected areas in the country, to benefit 20,000 children and mothers. Across the border, three trucks were sent from Copenhagen – which is UNICEF’s warehouse in Europe and the largest humanitarian hub in the world – and those trucks were carrying essential supplies, such as early childhood development, recreational and hygiene kits. These supplies have now arrived in Poland.

And today, the World Health Organization said it has so far delivered 81 metric tons of supplies and is establishing a pipeline of supplies for health facilities across Ukraine. WHO also has released $10.2 million from the Contingency Fund and deployed staff to provide care to refugees.

While we are on the subject of money, the Ukraine Flash Appeal 2022 has received $109 million so far, which represents 9.6 per cent, so we are inching up. That being said, the appeal which was launched by the Secretary-General on 1 March requires US$1.1 billion for a three-month period for humanitarian response inside Ukraine. There’s another appeal for outside from UNHCR. As we have said we encourage the donors who made generous pledges to release the money quickly and report their contribution to OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service.