The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Ukraine: Top UN aid official appeals for access across contact line
STORYLINE
“Winter is coming,… [and] all we want to do [is] provide insulin to the hospitals, provide blankets, provide mattresses… it's not complicated,” the United Nations’ top aid official in Ukraine said on Friday.
Speaking from Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, where shelling has intensified in the last week, Denise Brown issued an urgent appeal for guarantees from Russia and affiliated forces to allow humanitarians to deliver “absolutely necessary” relief items across the contact line.
The Resident Coordinator for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is currently on a three-day mission to eastern and central Ukraine (Kryivyi Rih, Kharkiv and Dnipro) to assess the humanitarian situation first-hand.
She told reporters in Geneva that the UN was “constantly negotiating” for access, “up and down” the line that divides those fighting the war in the south and east. Mrs. Brown also said that she had no way of confirming what relief items, “if anything” Russia had reportedly sent to non-Government-controlled areas. Aid organizations “just have no reliable way of crossing the frontline”. But she said that she was “hopeful that the Russian Federation will provide the security guarantees that we require to go across”.
So far they have “reached less than a million people in the non-government controlled areas” and she warned, “if farmers can't reach their land, that's going to have a huge impact on their economic situation.”
The UN aid coordinator also warned that winter is fast approaching in Ukraine and that she did not believe that vulnerable communities in the east and south had what they needed to survive.
Six months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nearly 18 million people, around 40 per cent of the country’s entire population, need humanitarian aid. Many elderly people were living in damaged houses and the lack of access to gas or electricity in large parts of the east “could be a matter of life or death” if people could not heat their homes, Mrs. Brown said in a statement.
Regarding OCHA’s plans for winter, Mrs. Brown explained, “we will have to work differently …we can only assume” that people caught in a war “do not have what is necessary to make it through,” the season, “which starts early and lasts long”.
In a positive note, the Humanitarian Coordinator pointed out that the war has not prevented the humanitarian community from delivering: “Since the start of the war, we've reached over 12 million people,” providing “cash transfers, health care, shelter… access to clean water, protection, rehabilitation”.
Agricultural production is also “now finally moving” due to the UN-brokered Black Sea initiative. This “will have an impact on families, on farmers and their communities and on the food insecure, particularly in the Horn of Africa right now,” she added.
Having met people uprooted by the war, Mrs. Brown said “moral and hope was still there”. While internally displaced people told her they are grateful for support from the UN and NGOs, they “still want to go home”.
ENDS
STORY: Ukraine Humanitarian Impact OCHA
TRT: 02:39”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 26 August 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1. Exterior wide shot, United Nations flag flying.
2. Wide shot, panel at briefing.
3. Soundbite: (ENGLISH) Denise Brown, OCHA Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine:
“The winter is coming. These people have been caught in a war. Do they have what is necessary to make it through the winter months? I don't have anyone telling me that they do. So I can only assume that they don't. So every week or every two weeks, we're issuing notifications trying to access these populations.”
4. Close of journalist writing.
5. Soundbite: (ENGLISH) Denise Brown, OCHA Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine:
“We have to help people wherever they are and I'm hopeful that the Russian Federation will provide the security guarantees that we require to go across. That's all we want to do. Provide insulin to the hospitals, provide blankets, provide mattresses, fuel if we can, repair windows and doors. It's not complicated.”
6. Mid side view of attendees, screen showing briefing in background.
7. Soundbite: (ENGLISH) Denise Brown, OCHA Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine:
“The war has not prevented the humanitarian community from delivering. Since the start of the war, we've reached over 12 million people, which is a tremendous achievement. That's in cash transfers, that's in health, that's in shelter, that's access to clean water, protection, rehabilitation. So the team on the ground is really working extremely hard.”
8.Mid shot of attendees at briefing.
9. Soundbite: (ENGLISH) Denise Brown, OCHA Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine:
“In that time we have reached less than a million people in the non-government controlled areas. We just have no reliable way of crossing the frontline.”
10. Close shot of panellist, speaker on screen in background.
11. Soundbite: (ENGLISH) Denise Brown, OCHA Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine:
“People in this country have suffered enormously, enormous loss of lives, enormous loss of livelihood. The agricultural production, which, thanks to the Black Sea initiative, is now finally moving, will have an impact on families, on farmers and their communities and on the food insecure, particularly in the Horn of Africa right now.”
12. Mid shot of attendees at briefing.
13. Soundbite: (ENGLISH) Denise Brown, OCHA Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine:
“You just have to see as you drive across this country, it's an agricultural country. There's production everywhere. So we can only imagine that if farmers can't reach their land, that's going to have a huge impact on their economic situation.”
14. Mid shot of screen with speaker and panellist, camera in foreground.
15. Mid shot of attendees at briefing.
16. Close shot of reporter typing.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine - WHO
A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the UN health agency to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage in the last three months.
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UN WOMEN , WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNDRR , IFRC , WHO
Nepal: Flooding disaster “not over” as humanitarians work around the clock
While search and rescue efforts continued Friday following flash floods and mudslides in northern Nepal, UN humanitarians are taking stock of the devastation amid concerns over more flooding to come.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL
Damaged roads, disrupted services and renewed military activity are putting civilians at risk in south Lebanon, UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) warns.
The UN peacekeeping mission is urging restraint and renewed political engagement to prevent further escalation.
1
1
1
Edited News | ICRC , UNODA
Amid unconfirmed reports that fully autonomous and AI-guided drones are now being used on the battlefield, UN chief António Guterres and the President of the Red Cross on Tuesday renewed their urgent call for stricter controls, before it is too late.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Somalia: child hunger surges as humanitarian aid dries up – UNICEF
The global funding crisis for vital lifesaving work is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where hundreds of health and nutrition facilities have been forced to close, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
As the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s history continued spreading on Friday, UN responders renewed their urgent appeal for immediate international support, with existing funding for lifesaving work critically low.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
DRC: In the fight against Ebola, bikers transporting dead bodies hold key to community engagement - WHO
From the frontlines of the deadliest-ever Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) shared details on Tuesday of a massive push for community engagement, a day after yet another ambulance attack.