More than five months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, humanitarian aid still does not “cross battle fronts” to reach the population of the territories occupied by Moscow, a UN source told Lusa on Monday.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have not been able to cross the battle lines and bring supplies, humanitarian aid, to the population on the other side, in areas that are not under the control of the Ukrainian government now,” he explained. the spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office in Ukraine, Saviano Abreu.
Nevertheless, more than 11 million people in Ukraine have received humanitarian aid in the last five monthssuch as food, drinking water, protection, shelter and education for children who had to leave schools in their regions, he pointed out.
“More than 11 million people have received humanitarian aid and it is still not enough,” he stressed.
The humanitarian worker spoke to the Lusa agency about the resumption of Ukrainian cereal exports, within the framework of the agreements signed by Ukraine and Russia, which lifted the Russian blockade in the Black Sea, and which were mediated by Turkey and the UN.
The departure of the first freighter with 26 thousand tons of corn is an example of it is possible to make agreements when there is “political will”.
But Saviano Abreu pointed out that the same has not happened in relation to humanitarian aid, where these governments have not fulfilled “any of the obligations imposed by international humanitarian law, to respect the civilian population.”
we need that [o acordo para exportações de cereais] go further and that, for example, humanitarian aid in Ukraine can also be offered to people who desperately need it, in areas that are not under the control of the Ukrainian government”, he warned.
Saviano Abreu, who has been in Ukraine since March, assured that the UN works “non-stop day and night” to guarantee access to aid for the entire population.
The spokesman for the UN humanitarian office explained that there are humanitarian operations that were already in the Donbass region, where the conflict began in 2014, but that since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, this aid process ceased to occur in the region. pro-Russian separatist regions.
“The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) or UN agencies that are there, they cannot help in these areasas well as those that have been taken over more recently, where control of the government has passed to the Russian Federation or allies”, he stressed.
Situations of humanitarian crisis such as that of Mariupol, in the southeast of Ukraine, where the help that arrived “was minimal” from already existing organizations, or the much talked about situation of the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal factory, were exceptions.
“We just entered, and I was there on that mission, when we evacuated the civilians from Azovstal,” he stressed, referring to the fact that the situation of lack of aid continues in many areas of Ukraine.
Source: Observadora
