Remarks by Osnat Lubrani, Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, on the humanitarian impact of four months of the war

/As delivered/



Good afternoon to all of you, following us here, on TV or online, for the opportunity to explain how we have been working to alleviate the suffering of millions of people in Ukraine over the past four months.

During the past four months, Ukraine has been the epicentre of the world’s attention. And not for good reasons. Since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the lives of every single woman, man and especially child in this country have been torn apart: their loved ones have been killed, injured and traumatized, their families separated, thousands of homes have been bombed. The level of human suffering cannot be explained with words. But maybe the numbers will give a better idea:

• Almost 16 million people in Ukraine need, today, humanitarian assistance—water, food, health services, a roof over their heads, protection. And these are conservative numbers that the United Nations is revising now, together with our humanitarian partners.
• More than 6 million people are still internally displaced. Some 5 million managed to return, but many know they might be forced to flee again.
• More than 5.3 million became refugees in other countries, a situation which I am sure most of them had never even imagined they would face.
• And what is even worse: how many lives have been taken since this war started? My colleague Matilda from the UN Human Rights monitoring mission here in Ukraine can give you more details. But we do know that the number we have of almost 5,000 civilians killed and more than 5,000 injured is just a fraction of the frightening reality.
• And this is not to mention the numbers—that are also not accurate because we could not verify all reports received—of hospitals, schools, homes damaged.

But this is probably not new information for the people of Ukraine who are hearing me today.

• It is not new for the mother of a 4-month-old baby I met when supporting the evacuations from Mariupol and Azovstal, who told me how she survived for months without seeing the sunlight, how she struggled to feed herself, how she and others had not enough clean water to drink.
• This is not new for the people of Donetsk, who over the past month, especially, have seen day after day their city being bombarded, their schools and hospitals destroyed, and having to spend hours hiding. They know what it is to live without piped water, which they can only have a couple of hours per day, some three times per week.
• It is not new for the people of Kherson, mainly those who are desperate to leave the city, to find safety somewhere else, but have been repeatedly prevented from doing so. Many even lost their lives while risking taking the journey towards the west of Ukraine.
• It is not new for people in almost the entire Luhanska oblast, not only Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, where we have all seen the images of destruction caused by the clashes between the parties to this horrendous conflict.
• I am not from here… but my heart breaks when I see this destruction, this suffering. When I was in Mariupol in May, I could not believe what came in front on my eyes. I remember how the city was when I visited it many times before and my heart broke again. I felt the same in Kharkiv, or areas close here to Kyiv, as Bucha, Irpin and others. And I stressed that I am not from here because I cannot even start to imagine how painful it is for many of you to see your houses, your cities destroyed.

We are making every effort to support the people whose lives have been torn apart because of this war. But the Russian Federation, and the Ukrainian Government, they have to do more to protect the people of this country and to make our work possible. 

• Since 24 February, the UN and humanitarian partners have provided life-saving assistance to nearly 9 million people in every single region of Ukraine.
• Nearly 2 million have received cash assistance, and are able to make their own choices to meet their basic needs. And my colleagues here can give you more details on the assistance provided.
• We are more than 300 organizations working in the response here, almost 200 of them national NGOS.
• And this is in complementarity to the incredible work that thousands and thousands of volunteers are doing here in the country to support people. Ukrainians are the first responders and they are truly supporting one another. I also have to say thanks to the private sector and local organizations that have both supported our work or directly provided assistance where it was needed.
• But what I wanted to highlight is what we have not been able to do, because of insecurity, because of impediments imposed on us that have prevented the UN and NGOs from doing more.
• We could not deliver relief supplies or access Kherson. We could not deliver relief supplies or access Mariupol. We could not support any sort of assistance, have not even managed to have the parties agree on safe passage of civilians from Sievierodonetsk so they could move in the direction of their choice.
• Access to non-Government-controlled areas is extremely difficult, to not say impossible.
• The parties to this conflict are blatantly ignoring their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.

The parties bear the responsibility for every violation under international humanitarian and human rights law. So, to conclude, I call on the parties to comply with their obligations, and protect civilians that have already suffered immensely because of the war, to protect civilian infrastructure that is vital for the people of this country, to decisively and urgently facilitate safe and unimpeded access for humanitarians to all regions, cities, towns, villages, where people need assistance, and to allow civilians to leave these areas if they want to. We are ready to do our part. The parties must do theirs.

Watch the briefing here.

For further information, please contact:

Saviano Abreu, OCHA: +380 504 223 943, deabreuisidoro@un.org 

Nadiia Kyzytska, UN Resident Coordinator’s Office, +380 50 900 22 97, nadiia.kyzytska@un.org