UN Begs for Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine as War Hits Two-Year Mark

A Ukrainian rescuing a cat amid fatal missile attacks by Russia, Jan. 2, 2024. The United Nations launched a humanitarian appeal of $4.2 billion for Ukrainians inside and outside the country for the year. “But we beg today,” said Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian relief chief, “please don’t walk away from Ukraine.” DEFENSE OF UKRAINE/LIBEROV

By Michelle Langrand via PassBlue

The United Nations launched an appeal on Jan. 15 for $4.2 billion to respond to growing humanitarian needs for Ukrainians in and outside the country for 2024. But while Ukraine braces for a third year of Russia’s invasion, it risks becoming one more item in the long list of protracted crises.

“It is a very sad reminder that today, we’re begging for attention for Ukraine, when for so many days and weeks and months of previous years, we’ve had much greater attention to Ukraine, and we begged for attention for people in places elsewhere,” Martin Griffiths, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told reporters in Geneva, just before laying out the blueprint in a room packed with diplomats.

The UN aid chief was joined by the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, who presented his agency’s $1.1 billion response plan for Ukrainian refugees, who remain uprooted from their homes.

Grandi recalled that Ukraine represents the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 6.3 Ukrainians scattered across Europe and other parts of the world and another four million people displaced internally.

Griffiths said he expected 40 percent of Ukrainians to need humanitarian assistance this year — 14.6 million people. His office, Ocha, is seeking $3.1 billion to reach 8.5 million people, a more modest sum compared with last year’s humanitarian appeal of $8.9 billion for 11 million people.

While needs in Ukraine are growing, the piling up of crises amid the struggling global economy has forced the UN to prioritize its targets, Griffiths explained.

The war in Gaza and the recent escalation in hostilities between Houthi rebels and Israel’s allies in the Red Sea has stoked fears of a wider regional conflict, which could unleash a whole set of other humanitarian implications.

Stalled military aid packages for Ukraine in the United States and the European Union — Ukraine’s top allies — have been taken as signs that support for the country is waning. Griffiths said that Ukraine was probably the UN’s best-funded humanitarian appeal last year, at 67 percent, compared with roughly 30 percent for its global response to all crises put together.

Griffiths said that unlike military and other types of support, commitments to humanitarian aid from the US, the EU and other key donors remained stable for now. “But we beg today, please don’t walk away from Ukraine,” he said. “The people of Ukraine need us today as much as they did on 22 February, two years ago.”

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, who was in Geneva to plead for her country’s cause, told delegates at the event to continue supporting Ukraine.

“The enemy counts [on us becoming] exhausted; the enemy knows that it cannot win militarily,” she said. She noted that nearly all of Ukraine’s budget is going toward military spending to defend itself and win the war, which is why external funding for humanitarian aid was critical for survival.

Poland, Sweden, the EU and other allies took the floor to reiterate their support for Ukraine and condemn Russia’s aggression.

Grandi praised the EU’s temporary protection mechanism for Ukrainian refugees, which has been extended to spring 2025. He urged host countries to begin discussions about what to do should the war extend beyond 2024. He said upcoming EU elections might bring uncertainty but that so far he hadn’t seen any major backlash against Ukrainian refugees.

He added that some 900,000 Ukranians are estimated to have returned, citing figures from the International Organization for Migration, though many Ukrainians were going in and out of the country, making it difficult to count, and some could not go back to their hometowns either ravaged by the war or still in an active zone.

As the war approaches its second anniversary, Griffiths said he didn’t see any signs of the war “coming to some conclusion.”

Grandi described these last months, during which Russian airstrikes killed over 30 civilians in Kyiv, as “one of the worst periods of the war in terms of impact on civilians.”

Homes, schools and hospitals are still being struck, as well as water, power and gas systems, Griffiths said, with the cold winter increasing people’s need for heating and proper shelter.

The main priority for the UN is tending to communities along both sides of the frontline, across east and south Ukraine, where Griffiths noted a “shocking” 3.3 million Ukrainians are living “under relentless bombardment.”

“In Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, families live in damaged houses, with no piped water, gas or electricity in the freezing cold,” he said.”Constant bombardments force older people to spend their days in basements. Children, terrified, traumatized, still have lived the last three years under these circumstances trapped indoors and many . . .  of them with no schooling.”

The UN and its partners have been providing aid to people in Ukraine-controlled war zones by sending regular convoys through a notification system that informs both warring parties of their deployment to ensure safe passage.

On the Russian-occupied parts, access to the population trapped there remains low, according to Griffiths, apart from the scarce aid that local organizations can get to them.

He said that there had been discussions with the Russian authorities, but no agreement had yet been reached, to deliver the aid directly to those people under the safety conditions required by UN standards.

The UN officials also commended the role of civil society in responding to needs in Ukraine, calling it a model of “localization” that could later serve to inform other humanitarian contexts.

“Ukrainians refuse to buckle under this extraordinary onslaught, and they refuse to resign,” Griffiths said, adding that 60 percent of the UN’s 500 humanitarian partners are Ukrainian organizations — “a testament really to the community spirit and the patriotic spirit of many people in that country.”

Griffiths urged countries to commit to finding an end to the conflict, otherwise the need for humanitarian aid would continue to grow.

A meeting on Sunday, Jan. 14, in Davos, where Ukraine tried to rally support from the global South for its vision of peace, was hailed a success by the organizers, Ukraine and Switzerland, even though awaited announcements of a future peace summit did not materialize.

Responding to a question by Geneva Solutions, Griffiths said that the UN is not part of the talks but is observing them closely and hoped there would be progress on the plan.

He added that while the UN was unhappy that the Black Sea grain deal fell through last July, after Russia refused to renew it, the UN was still working with Moscow on their agreement to help get Russian fertilizer and other exports onto the market.

Just a few weeks ago, he attended a meeting with the Russians, led by Unctad’s Rebeca Grynspan, he said, adding that there is still opportunity for progress on the Black Sea, where key trade routes were of the highest importance for food security, oil and other commodities.

Since the collapse of the UN and Turkish-brokered agreement, Ukraine has rerouted some exports through Bulgarian and Romanian territorial waters off the Black Sea’s western coastline.

“If the war were — and we have seen signs that it has in some respects — to be extended to make the Black Sea really a war theater, then of course those exports would be at risk,” Griffiths said.

“I believe personally that we need to talk to both sides about how to make those exports safe. . . . So watch this space.”

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