Humanitarians launched a renewed appeal for war-ravaged Ukraine that calls for $.25 billion dollars to provide assistance and protection to nearly nine million people.
The figure is more than double the initial appeal published just days after Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.
According to them, two months on, needs have continued to rise while the humanitarian response has expanded significantly in scale and scope prompting a revision and extension of the Ukraine Flash Appeal until August 2022.
Ukraine has a population of 44 million, and the war has left some 15.7 million in need.
The conflict has caused the world’s fastest growing displacement crisis since the Second World War, uprooting nearly 13 million people.
More than seven million are internally displaced while 5.2 million have crossed into neighbouring countries, such as Poland, and beyond.
The massive devastation of urban centres and the destruction of civilian infrastructure have severely disrupted healthcare and other critical services.
Last week, the UN Office in Ukraine reported that some 136 attacks on health care facilities have been recorded since the start of the war, representing nearly 70 per cent of worldwide attacks on the sector so far this year.
The updated flash appeal targets 8.7 million people, more than half of whom are women.
It is organised under five main strategies, which include delivering aid in the hardest-to-reach areas.
UN-led convoys have so far delivered supplies on five occasions, and more are planned in the coming weeks and months.
The appeal is coming ahead of the UN Secretary-General’s meetings this week with both the Foreign Ministers and Presidents of Ukraine and Russia.
UN chief António Guterres has travelled to Moscow, after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an in Ankara on Monday.
The secretary-general will have a working meeting and lunch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today and will be received by President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that Russia will not succeed in its war against Ukraine.
In two months, Russian armed forces had used more than 1,100 rockets, countless aerial bombs and artillery against Ukraine, Zelensky said.
Zelensky said this in his nightly video speech published on Telegram late Monday.
“But they have achieved nothing. And they will achieve nothing.”
Russian units had not seen a crumb of support in the east of the country, which they had very much counted on, the Ukrainian president added.