JOINT LAUNCH OF UKRAINE HUMANITARIAN NEEDS AND RESPONSE PLAN AND REGIONAL REFUGEE RESPONSE PLAN FOR UKRAINE FOR 2024

Next Monday, 15th January, we, together with UNHCR, will launch, here in the Palais des Nations, this year’s response plans for Ukraine and for the Ukrainian refugees and the host communities in the wider region.

People have endured almost two years of relentless hostilities following the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion.

More than 14.6 million people – 40 per cent of the population in Ukraine – will need humanitarian assistance this year.

The war has also forced some 6.3 million Ukrainians to flee abroad. UNHCR will update you on that.

Civilians are being killed and injured daily, while their homes and critical infrastructure are being destroyed.

The first week of January brought a wave of attacks to Ukraine, starting on the 29th of December and continuing to this day.

Families across Ukraine were ringing in the New Year to the sound of air raid sirens, hunkering down in underground shelters and metro stations, or in the basements of their homes.

On 2nd January, humanitarians in the capital Kyiv counted over 30 explosions in that city alone.

Kharkiv in the east was also hit, at least five civilian casualties were reported, and 130 people were injured that day.

The Donetsk Region was left without electricity or water, as temperatures dropped far below freezing point last week.

On 3rd and 4th January, attacks continued killing and injuring civilians in the Sumy Region in the north, in the Donetsk Region in the east, and in Kherson and Mykolayiv Regions in the south.

Over the weekend – no respite. On 6th January, another wave of air strikes in the Donetsk Region killed nearly a dozen civilians, five of them children.

And yesterday, more hostilities in Donetsk, Dnipro and Kherson Regions killed and injured dozens of civilians, including children, and damaged homes and schools.

On top of the violence, Ukraine is now in the grip of a deep winter. A continued, large-scale humanitarian operation is as urgent today as it ever was.

On Monday, the Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths and the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, will present our UN-coordinated plans to save lives and address the suffering caused by this ongoing emergency.

There will be a panel discussion to present both plans with Martin Griffiths, Filippo Grandi, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk, and NGO representatives from Ukraine and Poland.

The press is invited to attend the launch in Room XXIV, from 9.30 a.m. CET.

The event will also be webcast on UN webtv.