A humanitarian crisis is on the rise as pointed out by Monday’s UN report in Ukraine that the casualties increased sharply as a result of long-range weapons. “Long-range weapons killed 65 civilians last month and left 372 others injured across 11 regions of Ukraine,” Lisa Doughten, director of the financing and partnerships division at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reported to the UN Security Council. The deadly surge has surpassed by twofold figures from October.
Doughten, who described the situation in Ukraine as “catastrophic”, as cold temperatures fall to as low as -20°C (-4°F) in some parts, said, “Daily attacks continue inflicting death, injury, and untold suffering on ordinary Ukrainians.”
Also Read: PMD Forecasts Cold and Dry Weather for Most Parts of Pakistan
With critical infrastructure under constant inherited attack, Doughten explained, “face constant shelling and impossible choices: flee in perilous conditions, leaving everything they have, perhaps for the second or third time, or stay, risking injury or death.”
Doughten also emphasized that the Russian Armed Forces have continuously conducted large, coordinated attacks on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine since March of the current year, damaging it up to “more than 60% of energy generation facilities” in Ukraine. Their operation has thus deprived many people of access to heating and electricity, as well as water.
Also reported by her is the increase in attacks that hinder humanitarian operations, killing aid workers in Ukraine has tripled this year, from four in 2022, five in 2023 to 11 in 2024. Additionally, across Ukraine, 14.6 million people need humanitarian assistance while it has left 10 million displaced by the war.
Doughten said that almost $2 billion had already been given by donors as humanitarian assistance towards Ukraine in the year 2024. She added that there is still a large gap of $1.1 billion that will need to be filled. The international community was also tasked to “increase and accelerate flexible funding” for 2025.
Doughten demands “unambiguous compliance with international humanitarian law” because “that is the minimum level that should protect civilians, humanitarian personnel, and even infrastructure.” “What Ukraine and its people need is an end to this devastating war,” she emphasized, underscoring the urgent need for such a resolution as the only way to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.