UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : Press Briefing: UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine

So thank you very much for staying with us.

We have the great, great pleasure to welcome at the press briefing Assistant Secretary General Dennis Brown.

As you all know, Dennis is the resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine.

We are lucky that she was available to speak to the Geneva press Corps while in Geneva.

So I'll give her the floor immediately for introductory remarks and then of course, we will take questions.

Denise.

Thank you and and good morning.

I would like to really speak to you about Kharkiv and give you a flavour of what's happening in in that part of of Ukraine where there has been a very clear intensification of the war over the past couple of months.

Just to what you know, when I say that, let me explain what I mean.

We have over 100 UN staff in based in the city of Kharkiv.

So I'm there quite often and my last trip there two weeks ago, there were 12 sirens during the day and 12 explosions, right?

So there's a constant disruption to, to daily life in, in the city of, of carkeeping.

For the moment, I'm just speaking about, about the city and what's going on there.

But I'll expand that to the whole, to the whole region in, in a moment.

I was also there.

I think it's two weeks ago.

11 tends to lose track of time in Ukraine when the epicentre, which is a huge market, supermarket or hardware market, was hit on a Saturday afternoon by by missile strike.

I was there the next day.

I stood in front of, of the remnants of that, of that building, which is at least a city block long and was a mass of twisted steel, broken glass and, and smoke so strong 24 hours later that I could still, when I laughed, smell it on my, on my, on my hands and, and, and clothes.

So it's a very, it's a very hard reality in, in Kharkiv, in the city for the 1,000,000 more than 1,000,000 people that still live there.

And to give you a sense of how that city has changed, when I first went there in August 2022, when I arrived in in Ukraine, it was a city because of the proximity, proximity of the frontline, which was pretty much empty.

Walking along the streets, there were few people, most businesses were closed, only a few hotels and restaurants were open and no electricity at night.

Almost two years later, people on the streets, businesses are opened, more hotels, restaurants.

It's a city which is trying to reclaim, reclaim itself and and live despite despite the war.

But the intensification, the constant strikes, the relentlessness of it, which OHCHR is is monitoring and issuing reports about, does disrupt daily life.

The Saturday when the when the market was hit wasn't just the market, it was a building and a park.

So where do you go in Kharkiv that is safe for you and your family?

People aren't leaving the city, that's clear.

IOM monitors population movements within the country.

People are holding on and so it's important that everyone understand what's going on there.

Secondly is the impact on the energy infrastructure in Kharkiv.

It's not just in Kharkiv though, it's in the whole of Ukraine.

When I left last week to attend the Berlin Conference, the day before I left, there was a 10 hour blackout, which meant that backup systems also went went down during the course of the day.

But in Kharkiv, it's their constant blackouts.

Now, of course, we can all manage this during the summer months, but the anticipation of the very, very cold winters in Ukraine that are huge concern beginning in October.

Children, as you and you've heard the reports, but probably you haven't gone to the schools in the metro.

I have and it's the only way children can safely study in, in the city of of Kharkiv.

And you know my initial reaction, you know, when I go down with the mayor into the bowels of the metro and come across classrooms which look like regular classrooms full of children, teachers learning science, learning math, full of the energy and enthusiasm that children have.

My second thought was, but this isn't normal.

It's not normal that children have to study underground now beyond beyond the city, of course, is what's happening involved trans both trans is is a Hamada community that we know well.

I've been there myself a couple of times is regular humanitarian deliveries and supplies and services that we provide there.

Mandatory evacuations have been taking place according to the, the, the data that we have and we're very much, we're not part of the evacuations.

That's the, that's the government decision.

But we are there to receive people with the local and national actors up to 14,000 people.

So we've lost access to an important community like Wolfransk, the people who were displaced from there now most of them living in the what we call collective centres.

They're not camps in Ukraine, but collective centres, lives lost, livelihoods lost, papers, documents lost.

So we are looking at at Wolfchansk as potentially something that will be as destroyed as as Bakmoud has been.

So we're talking about death, displacement, destruction and the lack of access.

It's not a very pretty, it's not a very pretty picture.

As I said, the UN has more than 100 staff there.

We are determined to stay.

The NGOs, national and international also have hundreds of people.

So the assistance is being provided and OHHR is is documenting what's happening there.

That's on Car Keef and I think just on, on, on access in general.

So yes, we have lost access to places like Wolfchansk and Kharkiv, but also important settlements like Chasevyar and Donetsk, where I've been myself several times.

We are not able to go there anymore.

It's not, it's really not safe enough.

We can't get the necessary authorisations from from the Ukrainian military because of what is happening there.

Usually we have very, very good access.

We're able to go.

It's not easy.

I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm saying we're able to go.

But right now we are not.

So as I'm watching this situation unfold and there's an intensification of the war, that's actually what it means.

Daily life disrupted the people I've met in Chasevyar and Donetsk who were determined to stay in their communities, you know, including this fabulous woman, Olga, 75 years old in Chasevyar, who had worked there for 50 years and who was sort of in charge of the, of the, of the local government workers.

You know, when, when I went there the first time, she was telling us, well, you unload your trucks here and this goes there and this is what we need.

And next time, please do this.

Just the most amazing woman who now is in place that we can't, we can't get to.

So please keep in mind that as as there's a discussion about the intensification of the war, the missile strikes, the bombs that are being used, there are people who are impacted every single day by what's happening in Ukraine.

And you may hear about a missile strike today and you'll forget about it tomorrow.

But understand that the impact is widespread.

People lose their homes, they lose their lives, they're injured, businesses closed and people have to live in shelters.

So the whole ramification about what's going on there.

I'll just finish with the with the energy situation where I'm sure you're all aware of of what's been happening and the increasing targeted attacks against the energy infrastructure.

The fact that since the war, at least 60% of what Ukraine is able to produce has been lost.

There's now intense efforts to which the UN is contributing to ensure that the alternate systems that are required.

And I'm not the energy specialist, so I won't get into what that is, are in place before the the winter months.

It's a question of money.

It's a question also of accessing these supplies on the global markets and that there are safe and secure conditions for putting that equipment where it needs to go to keep the people of Ukraine warm over the very, very cold winter months.

So it's not a good picture.

I'm sure what I'm saying is not a surprise to you.

However, I do feel that, you know, when we all of us need to understand the, the, the ramifications for the people of Ukraine of the intensification of the war, the longer it continues, the more suffering there is.

And there's a cumulative impact of different factors which are combining to make life very difficult.

But, and you've heard people say it 100 times, thousands of times, the people of Ukraine are resilient.

Yes, they are very determined, but they also need our support.

Thank you.

Thank you very much indeed, Denise.

OK, let's start with the question.

Let's see.

Gabriel, Gabriel Tetro.

Reuters.

Oh, thank you very much for the update.

Just a question regarding the happenings here in Switzerland this weekend.

Do you plan to attend the peace summit in Birkenstock?

And what kind of outcome would you like to see from this conference?

Thank you.

I'm used, I'm used to getting loads of questions.

I think the Secretary General has addressed this question 2 days ago.

The UN will be present.

The UN will be present as as observers.

I believe that those attending will be announced this afternoon from New York.

And I understand that Secretary General did speak directly to President Zelensky and the Swiss to to explain that he had a personal commitment, but that the UN will will be there.

And then of course, we continue to advocate for a just peace for Ukraine.

Thank you.

Very much Nina Larsson.

AFP.

Yeah, sorry.

Also on the conference, I was wondering if you could say.

Anything about what you would hope would.

Come out of out of this conference.

I mean there are a number of issues.

On the table.

That are that you've been following also, you know, do you think there's any hope of making progress on.

The.

Issue of the displaced or children.

Thank you.

So the UN is an observer, not not a member State.

So we are we will whoever is going will be in in listening mode.

And again, just to repeat what the Secretary General has said since the very beginning.

This is a violation of the Charter.

We hope for a just peace for Ukraine.

And as I've said just repeatedly in my remarks, the the rest of the world should not normalise the war in Ukraine.

It's not because people can find a daily way of coping and sending children to a school in the metro that this is that this is a normal situation.

But we'll see what the summit yields.

Imogen Fox, BBC.

So I know you are not confirming or denying your attendance, but you're not in Ukraine, you're here in Switzerland.

So I think we will draw conclusions from that.

I, I'm still, I just wonder if you can give us any context to this because we all think it's kind of weird.

The whole conference is a bit weird, frankly.

But the, the, the key items on the agenda are things like food security, energy security, prisoners of war and the key humanitarian organisations that deal with those things and are present in Ukraine are not really present at this conference or not with a significant input about at all.

So 1 + 1 does not always equal 2.

And I'm only outside of Ukraine because I went to the Berlin recovery Conference and then I was asked to speak to donors this afternoon about our humanitarian approach in Ukraine, which is why I'm here.

So let's see on the rest, honestly, I think you have to speak to the to the organisers as to why it's those three working groups of the 10 point peace plan, what Ukrainians hope to get out of this, what the Swiss hope to get out of it.

Again, we're not an active member.

We will, you know, the UN will be represented.

Secretary General has insisted on that.

Again, he has explained it to President Zelensky and to the Swiss organisers and we'll be very whoever is attending will be very tentatively listening.

I think we we exhausted the question on the conference, other question in the room.

Otherwise I'll go to the platform.

I don't see in the room.

OK, so let's go to John Zarro, Costas, France, Vancatter and The Lancet.

Yes, good morning.

I was wondering, Miss Brown, if you could give us some details on what the humanitarians are doing to help the large number of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who are suffering from amputations because of the conflict.

I understand it's over 20,000 of the resources sufficient and what more is being done to help them?

Thank you.

It's a very important question.

First of all, though, the humanitarian community focuses on, on the civilian part of the, of the impact of the conflict and our rapid disaster needs assessment, which was done by the government, the UN, the World Bank and the EU.

We've done unfortunately had to do three of them since the start of the war and the last one was issued in February 2024.

We found a 7% increase in the number of disabled people in Ukraine.

And that's, you know, both civilian and well, we didn't look at at who people were, we just looked at the number of the percentage increase in those who are disabled.

So this presents a huge immediate challenge to to the country, but also a longer term.

The immediate challenges are of course, the physical support.

And there definitely isn't enough support for those who have lost limbs.

There's a real need to decentralise that.

Some very good examples.

Sure, you've heard of the superhumans in Levi, but then if you go to a place like Zaparizia or or Kharkiv, there needs to be a strengthening of the facilities of the capacity.

That's the physical part, the psychosocials apart, which was a very big part of the Berlin conference.

First of all, I think everyone in that country is going to be, including the aid workers, traumatised just by the constant sirens and and explosions and then which creates this huge sense of, of not knowing what's coming.

This is also being addressed.

But again, I think for the moment it's insufficient and the longer term challenges are going to be the reintegration of people who are disabled now into economic and social life.

And there's something we're working on very closely with WHO in particular in UNICEF, is the barrier free environment.

So if you are disabled, how do you get onto that bus?

How do you get into your apartment, into a shop?

For the moment the country is working on this, but there's still a very, very long way to go.

Nothing will be resolved now.

It is going to take years for, for the country to to adapt socially, I think economically.

And it's not just the person who is affected who needs support, it's also the entire family who then needs to adapt to support the person who is immediately affected.

So it's it's a complicated issue, one we're putting a lot of emphasis on, emphasis on with the government.

WHO and UNICEF are working very hard on this, but we're nowhere near where we need to be.

This will take a long time.

Thank you very much, Mohammed.

Is Excel the Turkish news agency Anadolu Wansi.

OK.

Thank you so much, Alessandra.

My question also will be about the conference, a tomorrow peace conference.

As you know, Russia wasn't invited for this meeting.

Do you think that there can be a basis for negotiation at this summit without Russia?

What is your expectation for that?

Thank you.

OK, I'm the humanitarian, that's my job.

We support 11 million people in Ukraine through horrible circumstances.

I'm not in charge of organising the the peace summit.

I really do think these are important questions asked of the organisers, what their expectations are.

Again, I repeat, Secretary General has said the UN would be there as observer listening very attentively and we we hope for just peace for Ukraine in line with the with the UN Charter.

Thank you very much.

I thought we had.

We didn't, OK.

So let's see if there are any other questions in the room.

I don't see any or on the platform.

Otherwise, I I don't see any.

So thank you so very, very much as G Brown for being with us today.

I understand you have a lot on your plate today, so we'll let you go.

Thank you for being with us.

Just before concluding, a reminder that on Tuesday after the holiday, the UN holiday, we will open the current the the new Council, Human Rights Council session at 10 O clock for Couture, the **** Commissioner for Human Rights will make his presentation, so be there in room 20.

Thank you very much.

Have a nice long weekend, working weekend I believe for many of you and I'll, I'll see you on Tuesday.

Thank you.

Press Briefing: UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine - 14 June 2024