'Attacks on Ukraine Have Only Escalated Further' - OCHA

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Published Jun 22, 2024

Briefing by Lisa Doughten, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)'s Director of Financing and Partnerships Division for the office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, on behalf of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mr. Martin Griffiths, on the Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine, during the 9525th meeting of the Security Council.

A top humanitarian official today (14 May) told the Security Council that across Ukraine, there has been “an intensified pattern of attacks on civilian infrastructure, with far-reaching humanitarian consequences.”

The Director of the Financing and Partnerships Division at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Lisa Doughten said, “over 7,000 civilians were evacuated from border areas of the Kharkiv region. And they have had devastating consequences for civilians who remain in those areas, with many cut off from access to food, medical care, electricity and gas.”

In Donetsk and Sumy regions, Doughten said, people, “were also impacted by attacks in recent days with homes and civilian infrastructure damaged,” and added that “700 civilian casualties across Ukraine in April.”

The humanitarian official said, “since 22 March 2024 the UN and its partners have seen five waves of attacks directed against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. OHCHR recorded 50 such incidents in April alone. Kharkiv and Dnipro regions are particularly affected, with Ukraine’s Energy Ministry reporting up to 250,000 residents experiencing rolling power outages in Kharkiv and ongoing restrictions in Dnipro since March.”

These attacks, she said, “have destroyed or damaged power generation plants and electricity substations,” and stressed that “the impact of these power cuts on the most vulnerable is stark.”

Doughten expressed alarm by reports of “attacks damaging energy infrastructure and oil refineries in the Russian Federation.”

Such attacks, she said, “risk enflaming the war further and worsening its humanitarian impacts.”