HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR DENISE BROWN TO MEET PEOPLE UPROOTED BY THE WAR IN EASTERN AND CENTRAL UKRAINE

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Denise Brown is starting today a three-day mission to eastern and central Ukraine to see first-hand the humanitarian impact of the war and efforts undertaken by humanitarian organizations in the country to support the people affected. This will be Denise Brown’s first visit to eastern Ukraine since she assumed her role as Humanitarian Coordinator for the country, in late July.

In Kryvyi Rih, Mrs. Brown is expected to meet people uprooted by the war and local authorities. The city is now home to more than 70,000 people who had to flee the horrors of the war in the east and in the south. In Kharkiv, where attacks and shelling have, once again, intensified over the last week, Mrs. Brown will visit a collective centre hosting people who lost their houses in the city or had to flee from other parts of Kharkivska oblast. She will meet humanitarian partners and authorities to discuss the response efforts and address possible gaps.

On the last day of her visit, Assistant Secretary-General Denise Brown will be in Dnipro, which hosts the Humanitarian Hub coordinating life-saving operations in eastern Ukraine. She will have the opportunity to discuss with humanitarians the planned efforts to support people during the upcoming winter and the challenges faced by aid workers to provide assistance in areas close to the front line and areas beyond the control of the Government of Ukraine.

Six months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nearly 18 million people – around 40 per cent of the country’s entire population – need humanitarian aid. With the winter approaching, the situation will get even worse. Many are living in damaged houses and the lack of access to gas or electricity in large parts of the east becomes extremely concerning and could be a matter of life or death if people cannot heat their homes. The United Nations and humanitarian organizations, most of them Ukrainian national NGOs, reached more than 12 million people with critical aid since 24 February.

***

For further information, please contact:

Saviano Abreu, in Lviv: +380 681 334 432, WhatsApp/Signal: +254 780 530 141, deabreuisidoro@un.org

Viktoriya Hrubas, OCHA: +380 50 382 4541, viktoriya.hrubas@un.org

OCHA press releases are available at www.unocha.org or www.reliefweb.int