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HIGHLIGHTS
- After more than two weeks of intense fighting, civilian casualties continue to mount across the country. Between 4 a.m. on 24 February and midnight on 9 March, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reports at least 1,506 civilian casualties, including 549 killed.
- On 9 March, the maternity and children’s wards of a prenatal hospital in the centre of Mariupol were destroyed in an attack. Less than a kilometre away, explosions later that day damaged a university and city council building in the city, adding to the scores of homes, grocery stores and other critical infrastructure damaged or destroyed. The civilian toll has yet to be confirmed.
- On 9 March, Ukraine’s state-run nuclear company Energoatom announced that all nuclear facilities in the Chornobyl exclusion zone were without power, warning of a possible nuclear discharge. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) later reported that there has not been any critical impact to the safety of Chornobyl, adding that the plant’s fuel storage pool and volume of cooling water remain sufficient to effectively remove heat without electricity.
- Since 24 February, an estimated 4.2 million people have been forcibly displaced during the Ukraine crisis. This includes 2.3 million refugees who have fled to other countries, as reported by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and an estimated 1.85 million people internally displaced, according to the Ukraine Protection Cluster. The Protection Cluster further reports that the largest locations of internally displaced people (IDP) are in Zakarpatska (500,600), Lvivska (386,900) and Volynska (169,500) oblasts in the west and north-west of the country. The displaced populations – mainly women, children and older persons – face significant protection risks and require urgent multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance that is tailored to their specific needs.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed at least 24 attacks on health facilities, health workers and ambulances, killing at least 12 people and injuring 17 more. Amid harsh winter temperatures, WHO says that displaced people face growing risks of hypothermia, frostbite, respiratory diseases and mental health issues, adding that the current conditions on the ground are ripe for the growth and spread of infectious diseases.
- International humanitarian organizations continue to rapidly scale up their response activities against the ever-growing scope and scale of needs across Ukraine. Still, access and security constraints prevent humanitarian organizations from reaching those most affected, with local authorities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society actors better positioned to respond to people in need quickly and effectively. However, these organizations need safe and predictable windows of silence and safe passage in and out of affected communities, along with access to streamlined additional funding, to sustain and expand life-saving response activities.
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