The UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, hopes the United Nations will provide the necessary assistance to Ukrainians for as long as the Russian invasion continues, but the international community is allocating fewer and fewer resources to this end.
The coordinator spoke in an interview with the UN press service, Ukrinform reports.
“The hope and expectation is that as long as the war lasts, we will continue providing humanitarian assistance. And that’s becoming not so easy because we’re getting less and less resources from the global community,” Schmale said.
According to him, humanitarian support is designed to help the Ukrainian government reach 1.8 million of the most vulnerable people. It is, in particular, about keeping the population warm throughout winter.
Schmale noted that about 112,000 people live on so-called collective sites.
“Our focus is on supporting these people in collective sites. So, there is assistance in the form of heating appliances, in the form of fuel, wood, coal, gas.,” he said.
People are also given warm clothes and cash.
Schmale noted that due to Covid and the war, many young children have not attended school and have not had access to education for almost six years.
A large part of health care facilities was destroyed. “So a concern is how to keep primary health care going and to help rebuild the health sector,” he said.
The humanitarian coordinator also said that the UN structures are helping Ukrainian farmers resume agricultural production on demined lands.
” Whereas here in Ukraine, I am really positively impressed by the determination of citizens and the government to start repairing and rebuilding as soon as opportunities arise,” Schmale noted.
He said that during the three months of his work in Ukraine, he visited the frontline cities and was convinced that “there are actually deliberate attacks (by Russian troops – ed.) on civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
He also emphasized that “access to Russia controlled areas is almost impossible,” although people there need help.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, in August, the new coordinator of the UN system and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, started its work.
Photo: Viktoriya Andriyevska/OSNA
Source: UN to continue sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine but resources keep shrinking - coordinator
