New York, December 6 – The U.N. Security Council was told that Russia’s “senseless war“ in Ukraine, which started on February 24 this year, has killed 17,023 civilians, including 419 children, but the real toll is “far greater.”
“The torment it continues to bring to the people of Ukraine and beyond is colossal,” Martin Griffiths, the coordinator for the U.N. humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, briefed the 15-nation Security Council.
“The widespread death, destruction, displacement and suffering caused by this senseless war, ongoing humanitarian operations and the challenges that the humanitarian community continues to face,” Griffiths said.
He said over 14 million people remain forcibly displaced from their homes in Ukraine, including 6.5 million internally displaced, and over 7.8 million refugees recorded across Europe. The number of civilian deaths was recorded by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights as of December 1.
Griffiths said that since February 24, 1,148 children had been killed or injured, “while millions have fled, been uprooted from their homes, separated from their families or put at risk of violence”.
The U.N. official said Ukraine is now facing winter and temperatures are already below freezing and are expected to drop to below minus 20 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, Russia has launched attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including power stations and heating plants, which have left millions of people without access to heat, electricity, and water, adding another dangerous dimension to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war.
“In Ukraine today, the ability of civilians to survive is under attack.,” he said
Griffiths told the council that close to 690 humanitarian partners, most of them local organizations, have provided life-critical aid and protection services to 13.5 million people in Ukraine.
He said the U.N. has also received unprecedented assistance from a member state and other donor support to the Ukraine Flash Appeal, with $3.1 billion received of the $4.3 billion required through the end of 2022.
“To date, we have transferred almost $1 billion in humanitarian cash assistance to more than 4.3 million people. But more must be done to close the funding shortfall. Continued support is critical to sustain humanitarian operations through 2023.”
Following the briefing by Griffiths, UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward said, “We know what Russia is trying to do: it is trying to bring terror and suffering to the civilian population in a war of subjugation. It is barbaric, illegal, and horribly cruel.”
“The statistics we have heard from the U.N. today are shocking, more than 17,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine by Russia’s senseless war. It is a devastating number of innocent lives lost, and we’ve heard today in particular the impact Russia’s war is having on children in Ukraine: The trauma inflicted by Russia will last for generations.”
“President, the response from this Council, and the wider U.N. Membership, has been consistent: a call for an end to conflict; for peace.”
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