Weekly Update #121
June 24, 2024

General Figures

Refugees from Ukraine recorded across Europe 

5,996,500

Last updated June 13 2024

Covers those granted refugee status, temporary asylum status, temporary protection, or statuses through similar national protection schemes, as well as those recorded in the country under other forms of stay 

Refugees from Ukraine recorded beyond Europe

558,300

Last updated June 13 2024

Covers those granted refugee status, temporary asylum status, temporary protection, or statuses through similar national protection schemes, as well as those recorded in the country under other forms of stay 

Refugees from Ukraine recorded globally

6,554,800

Last updated June 13 2024

Source: UNHCR collation of statistics made available by the authorities

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Vast Majority of IDPs Across Ukraine Have Remained Displaced for More Than One Year

More than two years since the start of the Government of Russia’s  full-scale invasion, an estimated 82 percent of the more than 3.5 million IDPs countrywide have remained displaced for more than one year, according to the most recent countrywide assessment conducted by IOM in April 2024.

GoR hostilities have continued to cause new displacement in some areas, such as in Kharkiv during the GoR offensive in May, the average IDP has reportedly remained displaced for more than 590 days. As a result of their long-term displacement, IDPs have relied on various negative coping strategies to meet their basic needs, with nearly 60 percent of IDP respondents in April reportedly forced to spend savings and to reduce the quantity of household purchases for food and basic goods. IDPs have increasingly used several other coping strategies in 2024—such as skipping rent payments, selling household goods and assets, and moving to lower-quality shelter—compared to late 2023.

More than 57 percent of the assessed IDPs expressed the intention to remain in their current location, to which they most commonly relocated in an effort to seek relative safety compared to their areas of origin, especially for IDPs from Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Luhansk oblasts. Food remains the most commonly cited need among assessed IDPs—for nearly 40 percent of respondents—followed by clothes and other relief commodities, hygiene items, medicine, and rental assistance. Notably, the majority of the IDPs reported cash as their preferred assistance modality, which enables them to fulfill their specific needs while bolstering local industry and businesses.

Source: USAID

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Survey: In Poland, the attitude towards Ukrainian refugees is deteriorating

This article is a machine translation from the Ukrainian version.

More than two years after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Polish citizens are less favorable toward Ukrainian refugees in all areas, with the exception of accepting Ukrainian children into Polish schools.

Source: research by the University of Warsaw and the Academy of Economics and Humanities in Warsaw, reports "Evropeyska Pravda" with reference to  Rzeczpospolita.

Details: According to the research, only 31% of respondents believe that Poland must necessarily help Ukraine (62% thought so in January 2023), and 43% "prefer to help". The group of Poles who are against aid has increased to 19%.

72% of Polish respondents believe that, despite the war with Russia, Poland should primarily take care of its own interests (a total of 15% hold the opposite opinion) - this mainly concerns food exports.

In two years, the number of respondents who now believe that Poland should not provide additional support to Ukraine has doubled. Most Poles support material aid - that is, food and clothing, but the number of its supporters has decreased from 79% to 62%.

Only 7% of Polish respondents have a very positive assessment of Poland's relations with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, and 18% are categorically negative.

Currently, only 17% of Poles agree to accept refugees from Ukraine with the possibility of resettlement  (more than a year ago, 37% thought so). 61% want them to return to Ukraine after the war.

The majority of Poles (95%) also believe that Poland should reduce aid payments to Ukrainian refugees.

Another survey revealed that  Americans and Italians are the most liked by Polish residents , while Russians, Belarusians, and Roma are disliked the most.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda (Google translate)

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Ukrainian refugees: EU member states welcome the proposal to extend temporary protection

On 13 June 2024, the Council reached a political agreement on the proposal to extend the temporary protection for the more than 4 million Ukrainians who fled from Russia’s war of aggression until 4 March 2026. The Council will formally adopt its agreement in the next weeks. Ministers also raised the need to look for sustainable measures to support those fleeing from Russia’s war.

Source: Council of the EU

Education under Occupation: Forced Russification of the School System in Occupied Ukrainian Territories

Russian authorities are suppressing the Ukrainian language and curriculum, imposing the Russian curriculum, anti-Ukrainian propaganda, and Russian as the language of instruction in schools in areas of Ukraine that Russia is occupying, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

These measures violate the laws of armed conflict, which prohibit an occupying power from making unnecessary changes to laws in the occupied territory, as well as international human rights standards on the right to education.

The 66-page report “Education under Occupation: Forced Russification of the School System in Occupied Ukrainian Territories,” documents violations of international law by the Russian authorities in relation to the right to education in formerly occupied areas of Ukraine’s Kharkivska region, and other regions that remain under Russian occupation. Russian authorities have forced changes to the curriculum and retaliated against school staff who refused to make such changes with threats, detention, and even torture. Human Rights Watch also found that occupying authorities threatened parents whose children were learning the Ukrainian curriculum online.

Ukrainian experts estimate that one million school-age Ukrainian children remain in Russian-occupied territory. Data that the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science provided Human Rights Watch indicate that more than 62,400 children living in occupied areas continue to study in Ukrainian secondary education institutions remotely.

The laws of war require an occupying power to restore public order and services in the occupied territory, including to facilitate the proper education of children, but it must respect the laws in force in the territory before the occupation, and is prohibited from imposing its own laws, including laws on education.

The Russian school curriculum imposed in occupied areas of Ukraine includes history textbooks that justify Russia’s invasion, portrays Ukraine under its current government as a “neo-Nazi state,” and strictly limits instruction in the Ukrainian language. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees children’s right to an education that develops respect for the child’s “own cultural identity, language and values,” as well as the “national values” of the child’s country of origin. Russia’s imposition of changes to education in occupied territories also violates other international human rights standards, including the prohibition against propaganda for war, the child’s right to mother-tongue education, and parents’ right of choice regarding their children’s education.

Ukrainian children under occupation also receive military training as part of the school curriculum. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that Russian authorities require secondary schools in occupied Ukrainian territory to share the names of students ages 18 and older, whom the Russian authorities deem eligible to be drafted into the Russian armed forces.

Human Rights Watch found that occupying authorities retaliate against anyone, including in schools, who criticizes the invasion. Russian authorities and their proxies punished distance learning or teaching of the Ukrainian curriculum and threatened parents with fines, loss of custody of their children, and detention if they did not enroll their children in “Russian” schools, or if their children studied the Ukrainian curriculum remotely.

Occupying authorities also used coercion, detention, ill-treatment, and torture to pressure Ukrainian teachers to work with them or to hand over students’ files and other school data. The report documents the week-long detention, in dire conditions, of a school principal from Borivske village in Kharkivska region, whom security officers beat repeatedly for refusing to hand over information about his school.

In addition to the occupying authorities’ specific abuses, Russia’s full-scale invasion has placed a range of pressures on Ukraine’s education system, such as barriers to online learning, the burgeoning need for mental health support for students and teachers, and a negative impact on students with disabilities.

The report also documents the Ukrainian authorities’ problematic use of the criminal offence of “collaboration” against Ukrainian education staff who worked under Russian occupation, even though some teachers had to work under occupation to survive.

A letter from the Education Ministry to the heads of educational institutions and other officials in September 2022, which Human Rights Watch examined, warned educational workers that working in any managerial, teaching, or research position under the occupying authorities is “categorically unacceptable” and warrants a “severe” criminal penalty, even though occupying authorities used threats and violence to coerce educators to work in schools.

The laws of war do not directly address wartime collaboration but prohibit occupying forces from exercising coercion against civilians who are not their own nationals, anticipating occupying forces’ efforts to do so. They also require the occupying power to facilitate the proper working of institutions dedicated to the education of children, with the cooperation of the national and local authorities.

Given the context of occupation and teachers’ responsibilities to educate children, Human Rights Watch believes Ukrainian authorities should not penalize teachers in occupied territories solely for providing education to children under the Russian curriculum, and should revise their overly broad view of the offense of collaboration.

Ukrainian authorities and foreign donors should work with Ukrainian civil society groups to find ways to keep children connected to learning under occupation or during displacement by Russian forces, Human Rights Watch said.

Source: HRW

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War in Ukraine: situation report from WHO Country Office in Ukraine

WHO preposition strategy implemented in WHO hubs

Nine hospitals in Zaporizhzhya City and one hospital in Dnipropetrovsk oblast’s Nikopol district were selected for urgent stock distribution. The main goal was to support crucial hospitals in the two oblasts’ most vulnerable regions.

A significant concern was that hospitals in regions near the line of control often faced financing difficulties, which led to shortages of critical items.

The initial distribution took place on 24 May. Four hospitals in Zaporizhzhya were provided surgical kits, medications, and medical supplies expected to last for at least the next three months. WHO was involved in this bilateral distribution effort.

The second part of the distribution was completed in early June. In total, there were 114 trauma and emergency surgery kits or paediatric kits (Module 1 and 2), and 27 interagency emergency health kits and noncommunicable disease modules. In total, 141 WHO medical commodity modules were provided (including medications, medical supplies, surgical instruments, primary medical equipment, etc.).

The strategy aimed to ensure that hospitals located in high-risk areas had a minimum stock level to sustain their operations for at least 2–3 months. The primary beneficiaries were the residents of Zaporizhzhya City and the city of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk oblast, who were receiving treatment at these 10 medical facilities.

This donation strengthened operational services in state-owned hospitals and emergency medical services in high-risk areas of the two oblasts.

WHO RESPONSE: WEEK 23 AND 24

Health Facilities reached:   97

People provided with supplies: 27,784

Supplies distributed: 18.1 MT

Interagency convoys conducted: 0

Source: WHO

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UNICEF donates additional 40 vehicles to boost medical and social care to children aged 0 to 3 years old

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), together with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, has delivered 40 vehicles to primary health care facilities in nine regions. This will support the Home Visiting Programme, a joint project of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and UNICEF which aims to improve access to quality health, nutrition, and development services for children aged 0 to 3 years old.

The vehicles were purchased with support from the Government of Spain and UNICEF National Committees in Spain and the Netherlands. The cars will be delivered to the Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions, and the city of Kyiv.

“Home visiting makes quality primary health care and services more accessible for children during their first 1000 days, the period from conception to two years old that is crucial for a child’s optimal growth and development,” says Veera Mendonca, Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Ukraine. “Home visiting enables the early detection of health-related problems and risks, such as missed routine immunization doses, disabilities, and developmental difficulties. With early detection, children and their parents and caregivers can get the urgent services and support they need. This helps every child, especially the most vulnerable, get the best start in life.”

The new vehicles will enable home-visiting nurses to reach families with children aged 0 to 3 years in the Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions, and the city of Kyiv. It will help them reach families living in remote communities in these regions, including those close to the frontline, as well as in areas with internally displaced people.

"Despite the challenges of war, the health and well-being of children remain a top priority for the Ministry of Health,” says Viktor Liashko, Minister of Health of Ukraine.  The Spanish Ambassador reaffirmed Spain’s solidarity with Ukraine, particularly in supporting children access routine health care.

In 2023, UNICEF donated 70 vehicles to 65 primary health care centres in eight regions of Ukraine.

Through the Home Visiting Programme, families receive support from health professionals on immunisation, breastfeeding, nutrition, sanitation, hygiene, positive parenting and early identification of developmental disabilities, health-related problems and risks.

The programme is currently being piloted in 12 regions of Ukraine: the Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Zakarpattia, Volyn, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, and Kyiv regions, and the city of Kyiv. To date, more than 20,000 parents and children aged 0 to 3 have already been supported by the Home Visiting Programme.

Source: UNICEF

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WFP Emergency Response (May 2024)

Prolonged emergency power shutdowns have become a daily ordeal throughout Ukraine, with the latest large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure on 1 June. While nationwide rolling blackouts were implemented in May, following a series of attacks since April, the newly tightened power schedule raises alarm for potential worsening of shortages, as need spikes in late summer and does not bode well for the difficult winter period.

In May, the new coordinated offensive on Ukraine has centred on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. Sixteen close-to-border towns have become either occupied or contested since, further reducing humanitarian access. Displacement is increasing, as nearly 12,000 people have been evacuated from the Kharkiv region so far.

On 15 May, WFP participated in the coordination meeting organized by the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration to assist coordination of emergency response in Kharkiv region. Chaired by the Minister of temporally occupied territories, the meeting was also attended by OCHA, IOM, UNICEF, international and national NGOs, as well as volunteer groups. WFP has provided 10,203 rations of in-kind assistance (9,964 ready-to-eat rations and 239 30-day rations) to evacuees at the central Kharkiv city transit centre in May. Over 1,500 evacuees also received the first cash assistance transfers after data cleaning and deduplication.

Donetsk region in the south, and Sumy and Chernihiv regions in the north have also become hotspots under the new offensives on Ukraine; Voluntary evacuation is taking place in a few towns in Sumy.

In May, WFP reached 1.7 million people in need, mostly along the frontline.

In response to the Kharkiv region evacuation, WFP through its local partner, Peaceful Heaven of Kharkiv, implemented the pre-verification for all self-evacuees arriving at the transit centre. Self-evacuated households with any of its members previously registered for in-kind distribution between February-April 2024 from the six most affected areas were able to register immediately for both in-kind and multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA) provided at the transit centre.

In addition to the Kharkiv region, emergency response plans have been developed for Donetsk and Sumy regions.

WFP’s cash _programmes and its cash transfer mechanism continue to provide reliable and timely support to those in need. In May, WFP disbursed over USD 10 million to more than 516,000 people in need through various cash-based assistance modalities.

WFP reached almost 1.1 million people in May through a combination of bread, rapid response rations, 30-day rations, and institutional feeding. In-kind assistance is designed to serve people living in hard-to-reach areas, where a local market is not functional due to ongoing hostilities, damaged infrastructure, mine contamination, or limited power supply. The vast majority of WFP in-kind assistance is provided in areas near the frontline with the most severe needs.

The local bakery project is an initiative to increase contributions to the local economy within WFP’s humanitarian operations by further increasing engagement with local bakeries. In May, 12 small bakeries in 5 regions (Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia) supplied 31 percent of the total bread needs for the month, with the same coverage rate expected in June.

WFP is also strengthening the capacity of the small bakeries by supplying them with additional equipment. In May, 2,110 bread trays were distributed out of the total 2,900 procured. The remainder will be distributed to future new bakeries.

The capacity assessment from the past few months revealed additional needs for dough machines, baking equipment, and slicing and packing machines. WFP plans to provide such equipment support equivalent to USD 860,000.

Source: WFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to invoke nuclear threats as part of his ongoing information campaign to discourage further Western support for Ukraine and undermine the international community's efforts to cohere its strategic vision for defeating Russia’s war of conquest against Ukraine. Putin claimed during a speech to graduating Russian officers on June 21 that Russia plans to further develop its nuclear triad as a "guarantee of strategic deterrence" and to maintain the balance of power in the world.  Putin noted that Russia is also working to increase its conventional combat capabilities and defense industrial production. Putin claimed during a press conference in Vietnam on June 20 that Russia is considering "lowering the threshold" for nuclear use in Russia's nuclear doctrine and that a possible future strategic defeat of Russian forces on the battlefield in Ukraine would result in the "end of [Russia's] statehood.

Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continued to emphasize Russia's initiative to create an alternative "Eurasian security architecture," likely as part of ongoing efforts to establish a coalition of friendly states to act as an alternative to the West and undermine NATO. Putin reiterated on June 21 his intention to create "equal and indivisible security in Eurasia."[5] Putin claimed that Russia is ready to discuss Eurasian security issues with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and BRICS.

Ukrainian unit says frontline fighting 'difficult'. Fighting around a strategic town in eastern Ukraine has become "extremely difficult", according to a Ukrainian military unit redeployed to defend it. Officials from Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade said they have been sent to the town of Chasiv Yar, as Russia continues to launch "mass frontal attacks" on the key settlement.

Chasiv Yar sits to the west of Bakhmut and has been the focus of intense Russian attacks since February, after nearby Avdiivka fell to Moscow's forces.

The deployment comes as Moscow said it had shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones in parts of Russia and occupied Crimea overnight, with officials saying one person was killed in the attack.

Russia's advance in the Donbas has been steadily gaining momentum since the beginning of 2024, with Kyiv's under-resourced forces struggling to hold the line.

Moscow's forces seem to have focussed their recent attacks on Chasiv Yar, which had a pre-war population of around 12,000 people. Losing the hilltop town would make Ukrainian cities in Donbas even more vulnerable to Russian attack.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian capture of Chasiv Yar would be “operationally significant”. It would give Moscow's forces favourable positions from which to launch offensives against Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka, cities that form the southern portion of a Ukrainian defensive belt.

Source: ISW

BBC

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US signals that it has expanded policy to allow Ukraine to counterstrike into Russia

The US appears to have expanded its agreement with Ukraine to strike over the border inside Russian territory wherever Russian forces are engaging in cross-border attacks into Ukraine, not just in the Kharkiv region as was previously determined.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told PBS News on Monday that the agreement with Ukraine to fire into Russia extends wherever Russian forces are attempting to invade.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Charlie Dietz said in a statement that the US “has agreed to allow Ukraine to fire US-provided weapons into Russia across where Russian forces are coming to attempt to take Ukrainian territory.”

The change marks a significant shift in the limited nature of the agreement between the US and Ukraine. President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission in May to conduct limited strikes inside Russia with US-provided weapons, but restricted it primarily to the border in the Kharkiv region after Russian forces launched a renewed offensive there.

“Russia opened a new front, they opened the front in the north in Kharkiv, where they’re attacking directly from Russian territory just over the border. The border and the front line is more or less the same,” Stoltenberg said. “And of course, if the Russian forces, the artillery, the missile batteries were safe as soon as they were on the Russian side of the border, it would become extremely difficult for Ukrainians to defend themselves.”

Source: CNN

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Russia hammers Ukraine’s power grid again and Kyiv’s drones target more enemy oil depots

 Russia resumed its aerial pounding of Ukraine’s power grid and Kyiv’s forces again targeted Russian oil facilities with cross-border drone strikes, seeking to curb each other’s ability to fight in a war that is now in its third year, officials said Thursday.

With no major changes reported along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, where a recent push by the Kremlin’s forces in eastern and northeastern Ukraine has made only incremental gains, both sides in the war have taken aim at distant infrastructure targets.

In its seventh major attack on Ukrainian power plants since Moscow   intensified energy infrastructure attacks three months ago, Russia fired nine missiles and 27 Shahed drones at energy facilities and critical infrastructure in central and eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said. Air defenses intercepted all the drones and five cruise missiles, it said.

The attack hit power structures in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Vinnytsia regions of Ukraine, causing “extensive damage,” according to national power company Ukrenergo. Seven workers were injured, it said.

Ukrenergo announced extended blackouts across the country despite electricity imports and help with emergency supplies from European countries.

Among the most damaging recent strikes on Ukraine’s energy supply were an April barrage that damaged Kyiv’s largest thermal power plant and a massive attack on May 8 that targeted power generation and transmission facilities in several regions.

Rolling blackouts have affected Ukrainian households and industry.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the strikes aimed at Ukrainian energy facilities that are needed to produce weapons and military equipment. Ukraine, which is heavily dependent on Western military aid, is developing a small but fast-growing defense industry.

In Russia, meanwhile, authorities in two regions reported fires at oil storage depots after drone attacks, two days after a Ukrainian strike started a huge blaze at another refinery.

Ukraine has in recent months stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to disrupt the Kremlin’s war machine.

The overnight drone attacks were carried out by Ukraine’s Security Service, known by its acronym SBU, a Kyiv security official told The Associated Press.

The attacks triggered fires at the facilities, which processed and stored crude oil and its derivatives used to supply the Russian army, the official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 15 Ukrainian drones over three regions but didn’t mention any damage. The ministry said it has shot down more than 26,000 Ukrainian drones since the start of the war.

Source: AP News

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Russia obliterates Ukraine’s front-line towns faster with hacked bombs and expanded air base network

Russia has accelerated its destruction of Ukraine’s front-line cities in 2024 to a scale previously unseen in the war using the glide bombs and an expanding network of airstrips, according to an Associated Press analysis of drone footage, satellite imagery, Ukrainian documents and Russian photos.

The results can be seen in the intensity of recent Russian attacks. It took a year for Russia to obliterate Bakhmut, where the bombs were first used. That was followed by destruction in Avdiivka that took months. Then, only weeks were needed to do the same in Vovchansk and Chasiv Yar, according to images analyzed by AP that showed the smoldering ruins of both cities.

Now, Russia is putting the finishing touches on yet another airstrip less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Ukraine and launching the bombs routinely from multiple bases just inside Russian borders, according to the AP analysis of satellite pictures and photos from a Russian aviation Telegram channel.

The bombing of the Epicenter in Kharkiv killed 19 people, including two children. In all, glide bombs have hit the city more than 50 times this year, according to Spartak Borysenko of the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.

The official also noted that Belarus provides sanctuary for Russian bombers. A map created by the Ukrainian battlefield analysis site DeepState showed 10 airfields in Belarus, including five just across the border from Ukraine.

The base material for the glide bombs comes from hundreds of thousands of Soviet-era unguided bombs, which are then retrofitted with retractable fins and guidance systems to carry 500 to 3,000 kilograms (1,100 to 6,600 pounds) of explosives. The upgrade costs around $20,000 per bomb, according to the Center for European Policy Analysis, and the bombs can be launched up to 65 kilometers (40 miles) from their targets — outside the range of Ukraine’s regular air defense systems.

Source: AP news

Courtesy of the Order of Malta