“Winter is coming…[and] all we want to do [is] providing insulin to the hospital, providing blankets, providing mattresses… it’s not complicated.” speak Denise BrownUnited Nations Resident Coordinator in Ukraine.
She is currently on a three-day mission to eastern and central Ukraine (Kryivyi Rih, Kharkiv and Dnipro) for a live assessment of the humanitarian situation.
Negotiating ‘ongoing’
Ms. Brown told reporters in Geneva that the UN was “constantly negotiating” to reach, “up and down” the dividing line of those battling a war that stemmed from Russia’s invasion on May 24. 2, in the south and east.
Ms. Brown also said that she had no way to confirm what relief items, “if any”, Russia had sent to areas not controlled by the Government. Aid organizations “have no reliable way to cross the front lines”.
But she said she was “Hopefully the Russian Federation will provide security guarantees which we require to go through”.
So far they have “Access to less than a million people in non-government controlled areas” and she warned, “if farmers can’t access their land, that will have a huge impact on their economic situation.”
Scary winter ahead
The UN aid coordinator also warned that winter is fast approaching in Ukraine and she does not believe that vulnerable communities in the east and south have what they need to survive.
Six months since the Russian invasion, nearly 18 million people, about 40% of the country’s populationneed humanitarian aid.
Many elderly people live in damaged houses and lack electricity or gas in many parts of the east “It could be a matter of life or death” If people can’t heat their homes, Mrs. Brown said in one statement.
About OCHAMs. Brown explained the plan for the winter, “we’re going to have to do something else… we can only assume that” people caught in a war “haven’t got what it takes to get through,” the season , “starts early and lasts long”.
Provide humanitarian community
On a positive note, the Humanitarian Coordinator points out that the war has not prevented the humanitarian community from doing: “Since the beginning of the war, we have reached more than 12 million people,” provides “cash transfers, healthcare, shelter… access to clean water, protection and recovery”.
Agricultural production is also “finally moving” mediated by the United Nations Black Sea County Initiative. This “will have an impact on families, on farmers and their communities, and on food insecurity, especially in the Horn of Africa right now,” she added.
When meeting people devastated by war, Ms. Brown said “the spirit and hope are still there”. While internally displaced people told her they were grateful for support from the UN and NGOs, they “still want to go home”.
