Statement by Amin Awad, Assistant Secretary-General and United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine marking 100 days since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February

Today marks 100 days since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. This invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity and of the Charter of the United Nations.

This war has taken an unacceptable toll on people and engulfed virtually all aspects of civilian life. This war has and will have no winner. Rather, we have witnessed for 100 days what is lost: lives, homes, jobs and prospects. We have witnessed destruction and devastation across cities, towns and villages. Schools, hospitals and shelters have not been spared.

Families and communities have been disrupted and uprooted. In just over three months, nearly 14 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, the majority women and children – a scale and speed of displacement not witnessed in history.

More than 3 million children saw their education suspended – an entire generation of children whose future hangs in the balance. All over the country, hundreds of thousands of people do not have access to water and electricity, and millions do not know where their next meal is coming from. 15.7 million people are in need of humanitarian support now, with numbers growing.

One hundred days on, the war ravages unabated especially in the east of the country. And with winter coming, millions of civilian lives could be in peril.

The United Nations agencies and humanitarian partners in Ukraine continue supporting those whose lives have been shattered by war. In the past 100 days, we have provided immediate humanitarian aid to some 8 million people across the country, including in besieged cities in the east of Ukraine.

At the same, the United Nations are pursuing every pathway to mitigate the global ramifications of the war’s devastating impact on food security by seeking to unblock critical grain and commodity trade.

Our tireless efforts to respond to the war’s devastating impact will continue, robustly and stead-fast.

But above all we need peace. The war must end now.