Ukraine: Humanitarian Situation | Security Council Briefing

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Published Jun 22, 2024

Briefing by Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, on Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine.

A United Nations humanitarian official today (7 Jun) told the Security Council that “the civilian toll of attacks on Ukraine has continued to mount,” with the Kharkiv region suffering “the heaviest impact.”

Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya told the Council that “few parts of the country are spared from these hostilities particularly in the east, northeast and south.”

Msuya said, “shopping centres, homes, educational establishments, shops, office buildings, parks and public transport have all been struck in recent weeks,” and noted that according to estimates by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), “at least 18,100 people in the Kharkiv region have been newly displaced.”

The humanitarian official said, “civilians who remain in border and frontline areas in Kharkiv face dire conditions. Many are cut off from access to food, medical care, electricity, and gas.”

Elderly people, she pointed out, “are disproportionately affected, because they are often unable or reluctant to leave their homes and said that in northern Kharkiv “more than half of those killed or injured have been over the age of 60.”

In total, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has verified the killing of at least 11,000 civilians and the injury of more than 21,000 others across Ukraine since 24 February 2022.

Russian Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva told the Council that “the main problem and the main threat to international peace and security remains the focus of the US - and the European countries supporting the US - to continue the conflict in Ukraine at any cost with the aim of weakening Russia.”

Evstigneeva said, “statements about Western weapons being used without limitation on the territory of our country are in furtherance of this dangerous policy, including discussions about more and more instructors being sent, and even Western countries units to Ukraine."

For his part, Ukraine’s Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, said participation in the international peace summit on the Russian-Ukrainian War to be held in the Bürgenstock Resort in Switzerland on 15 - 16 June 2024, “will give a platform to demonstrate a clear commitment of the international community to the appropriate principles and values.”

Kyslytsya said, “the success of the summit and global presence of this event will be a clear signal that the world does not support the war and wants peace.”