Weekly Update #33
October 17

A wave of missile attacks and other airstrikes on large urban centres in Ukraine this morning have left scores of civilians killed and injured and key infrastructure damaged across most regions of the country, including the capital Kyiv. The escalation of Russia’s war on Ukraine comes just a couple of days after the Kerch Strait bridge, which connects the annexed Crimean peninsula with the Russian Federation territory, was reportedly damaged over the weekend. An estimated 100 missiles were launched by Russia, targeting different regions of Ukraine.

In Kyiv, a series of explosions since early hours in the morning were reported in central districts of the capital, including near to the Shevchenko University, when students were going to classes and people commuting to work. In Kharkiv city and parts of Kharkivska oblast in eastern Ukraine, energy systems were reportedly damaged, leaving the population also without water due to the lack of electricity to operate the pumps. The situation is similar in Dnipro, an important humanitarian hub in central Ukraine, where a missile attack left an unspecified number of civilian casualties.

In the south, the situation is particularly concerning in Zaporizka oblast, where several missiles overnight have reportedly hit residential buildings and power lines. On9 October, more than a dozen civilians were reportedly killed and over 50 – including above 10 children – injured during overnight strikes that damaged or destroyed dozens of homes in the city.

In western Ukraine, several missile strikes were reported in Lviv city and across the oblast, reportedly targeting energy infrastructure, according to humanitarian security reports and the authorities. In northern Zhytomyrska, Rivnenska and Sumska oblasts, attacks reportedly damaged energy facilities, disrupting power and water supplies in some areas, according to the authorities.

The wave of attacks, claimed by Russia, has also impacted humanitarian operations across Ukraine, particularly hampering the movement of aid workers and delivery of emergency supplies in the east of the country, where people are in desperate need of assistance.

In New York, with 143 votes in favour and 5 against, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on 12 October declaring as “unlawful” the actions of the Russian Federation in holding so-called referendums and the subsequent attempted annexation of 4 regions of Ukraine. The resolutions demands that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

Sources: OCHA: ESCALATION OF ATTACKS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, Flash Update No.1 (October 10, 2022)

OCHA: ESCALATION OF ATTACKS ACROSS THE COUNTRY, Flash Update No.3 (October 13, 2022)

Internally Displaced Populations

(As of October 12)

Assessments from different agencies indicate that the situation remains far from stable. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported in its General Population Survey Round 9 that, while the total number of internally displaced Ukrainians decreased by more than 732,000 between August and September to 6,243,000 million, more than 740,000 people countrywide also said they are considering moving before the start of the heating season and winter.

IOM’s results are verified by various reports including:

The REACH Initiative report of September 30 on needs, responses and gaps
The study of the International Crisis Group released on 26 September, Responding to Ukraine’s Displacement Crisis: From Speed to Sustainability – arguing in part that “the grassroots effort organized to help them is not sustainable” and that, “donors should keep channeling aid to civil society but lay the groundwork for the state to step in.”

Sources: https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ukraine/

Ukraine: Humanitarian Situation Monitoring (September 2022)

Civilian Casualties (As of October 9, 2022)

From 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 9 October 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 15,592 civilian casualties in the country:

a total of 6,221 killed (2,417 men, 1,662 women, 164 girls, and 195 boys, as well as 37 children and 1,746 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
a total of 9,371 injured (1,960 men, 1,441 women, 199 girls, and 277 boys, as well as 238 children and 5,256 adults whose sex is yet unknown)

On the week of 1-9 October alone, 373 civilian casualties were verified by the OHCHR

97 killed (33 men, 19 women, 1 girl, 1 boy, as well as 2 children and 41 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
276 injured (61 men, 55 women, 3 girls, 8 boys, as well as 14 children and 135 adults whose sex is yet unknown

Civilian casualties in Ukraine from 24 February to 9 October 2022 (individual cases verified by OHCHR), per month

Source: https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ukraine/

IMPACT OF THE ESCALATION ON THE HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

The UN and its humanitarian partners continue to scale up their response efforts to meet the growing humanitarian needs of nearly 18 million people across Ukraine. Since 24 February, 13.4 million people have received humanitarian assistance and protection services.

Health

UN Operations distributed more than 140 generators to Ukrainian hospitals and health facilities with funding from the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund across areas where the Government of Ukraine regained control. In Sviatohirsk, Donetska oblast

UNICEF distributed school-in-a-box kits, hygiene kits and other supplies for 1,400 people over the past week. The recently retaken city of Lyman in Donetska oblast meanwhile, received its first inter-agency delivery of life-saving assistance. Facilitated by OCHA, WFP, UNICEF, IOM, WHO and UNHCR, humanitarian partner Slavic Heart provided hygiene kits, emergency shelter, food and emergency health supplies. The team observed massive destruction in the city and a widespread lack of fuel, which is now also causing water shortages, and continuous shelling a major concern for civilians.

In parts of the country that were severely affected by the conflict, such s Kharkiv, the availability o f medicines and medical services for the population has not yet been fully restored, in particular, due to the lack of sufficient contracting of pharmacies by the National Health Service of Ukraine. In other regions, such as the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy oblasts, medicines have not been dispensed under the “Affordable Medicines” programme since February.

There are currently 19 Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) from nine organizations.. EMTs are operating in ten oblasts, mainly in the east and northeast, south andt he western hub. The main areas of activity continue to be:

trauma care (in patient & out patient)
rehabilitation (including burns and spinal cord injury)
mobile health
patient transfer and medical evacuation

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care, there have been 607 attacks on health care, resulting in 129 injuries and 100 deaths, reported between 24 February and 12 October.

Sources: https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ukraine/

War in Ukraine: situation report from WHO Ukraine country office: Issue No. 26, 5 October 2022

Shelter, Non-Food Items, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Winter preparations remain a top priority and UNHCR is intensifying communication and coordination with the Government of Ukraine. UNHCR is aiming to assist people affected by conflict living in the newly accessible areas with a combination of shelter, non-food items (NFIs), cash and protection support.

To date, 869,992 people have benefitted from core relief items and housing assistance across eastern, central and western Ukraine. This includes 817,939 people who received essential items, including hygiene kits, and 52,053 who received emergency shelter kits, benefited from repairs and improved or created sleeping spaces.

Efforts to reach more people in the newly accessible areas continue. In Kharkivska, Chernihivska, Kyivska oblasts, UNHCR has provided critical shelter items, began repair of damaged homes, and constructed modular homes donated by the Danish government that are fully winterized.

To date, Cluster partners have reached 5.75 million people with some form of WASH-related interventions. More information on the distribution and nature of the response can be found on the WASH sectorial dashboard.

The vast majority of aid recipients have been reached through operations and maintenance support to service providers and damage repairs (3.3 million people), followed by people receiving WASH-related household items (1.43 million) and those reached with emergency water supplies (707,000). In addition, 164,000 have benefited from sanitation facility repairs or installations in various institutions and collective centres. Only some 2,300 people have been reported benefiting from health-care facility heating system repairs.

Sources: https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ukraine/

https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine

Food Security and Livelihoods

In newly accessible areas of Kharkiv, Kherson, and Luhansk oblasts, almost 300,000 heavily war-affected residents have been supported with over 2,500 mt of food assistance in September. This month, WFP surpassed the milestone of serving war-affected people with more than 100,000 mt of food since the start of the response in February. WFP assisted over 2.8 million beneficiaries with food and cash assistance in September.

As the conflict continues, WFP’s focus in October remains on responding deftly as the needy in the newly accessible villages and towns across the frontline regions in eastern and southern Ukraine become reachable. 400 boxes of 30-day rations were distributed on 4 October in Lyman, a strategic town of Donetsk oblast, only a few days after it became accessible.

During the last two weeks, 52 partners of Food Security and Livelihood Cluster reached over 2.4 million people with multiple rounds of food assistance and livelihood support (agricultural inputs, trainings) across Ukraine. Areas with the highest beneficiaries reached by partners are Kharkiv, Donetsk and Mykolaiv oblasts, respectively.

Cluster partners are actively delivering assistance to the newly accessible areas of the Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts in coordination with the respective oblast authorities. In detail, 12 cluster partners have responded to the needs of people in 61 Hromadas of Kharkiv oblast: Balakliyska (2,468), Iziumska (75,592), Kupianska (22,400), Shevchenkivska (1,040).

Twelve Cluster partners have already responded to the needs in areas of Kharkivska oblast since the Government of Ukraine regained control there in September. Food was delivered to 61 hromadas, including Balakliyska (around 2,500 people), Iziumska (over 75,000), Kupianska (over 22,000), Shevchenkivska (more than 1,000).

Many areas where the Government of Ukraine regained control have severely damaged infrastructure, reducing people’s capacity to cook. While further needs mapping is underway in these areas, these factors have to be considered when delivering not ready-to-eat food and adding to the response the facilities for cooking without gas and electricity.

Sources: https://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ukraine/

WFP Ukraine Limited Emergency Operation External Situation Report, 07 October 2022

HOLY FATHER ON UKRAINE

Angelus - 16 October 2022

This Tuesday, 18 October, the Foundation “Aid to the Church in Need” is promoting the “A million children praying the Rosary” campaign. I thank all the children who are participating! Let us unite ourselves to them and entrust the suffering people of Ukraine, and other people who are suffering due to war and any form of violence and misery, to Our Lady’s intercession.

Martedì prossimo, 18 ottobre, la Fondazione “Aiuto alla Chiesa che soffre” promuove l’iniziativa “Un milione di bambini recita il Rosario per la pace nel mondo”. Grazie a tutti i bambini e le bambine che partecipano! Ci uniamo a loro e affidiamo all’intercessione della Madonna il martoriato popolo ucraino e le altre popolazioni che soffrono per la guerra e ogni forma di violenza e di miseria.

Links to the full text in ITALIAN and ENGLISH

General Audience - 12 October 2022

In these days my heart is always with the Ukrainian people, especially the inhabitants of those places where the bombardments have been raging. I carry within me their pain and, by the intercession of the Holy Mother of God, I present it in prayer to the Lord. He always listens to the cry of the poor who invoke him: may his Spirit transform the hearts of those who hold the outcome of the war in their hands, so that the hurricane of violence may cease, and peaceful coexistence, in justice, may be rebuilt.

In questi giorni il mio cuore è sempre rivolto al popolo ucraino, specialmente agli abitanti delle località sulle quali si sono accaniti i bombardamenti. Porto dentro di me il loro dolore e, per intercessione della Santa Madre di Dio, lo presento nella preghiera al Signore. Egli sempre ascolta il grido dei poveri che lo invocano: possa il suo Spirito trasformare i cuori di quanti hanno in mano le sorti della guerra, perché cessi l’uragano della violenza e si possa ricostruire una convivenza pacifica nella giustizia.

Links to the full text in ITALIAN and ENGLISH

Pope: I carry the pain of the cities that suffer from bombings in Ukraine

Pope Francis: ‘War must end or world risks nuclear catastrophe’

Pope: War has no excuse, it will never be a solution

Video-message of His Beatitude Sviatoslav - October 15 - 234th day of the war

Resilience is also related to a person's ability to rejoice in the midst of grief, no matter how strange it seems to us. The Holy Apostle Paul, addressing persecuted Christians, writes to them as follows: "Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say: rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

UKRAINIAN / ENGLISH / ITALIAN

Nuncio to Ukraine: 'We are used to war, but we must pray for peace'

As Russia steps up strikes on Ukrainian cities, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, discusses the situation on the ground, and the importance of the Church's response to the crisis.

Parolin: A truce in Ukraine is “not only feasible, but urgent”

VIDEO: Vescovo Kiev: “Aggressione russa ai civili è terrorismo”

SABATO 15 OTTOBRE 2022

Mons. Krivitskiy parla a Tv2000: “Dobbiamo aspettarci un nuovo tipo di guerra contro la popolazione civile. In questo momento non vedo spiragli di pace”. “Quando un aggressore attacca i civili, quando tenta di distruggere le infrastrutture essenziali come l’elettricità colpendo di fatto anche gli ospedali - pensiamo solo ai reparti di neonatologia - come si può definire se non terrorismo?”. Lo ha detto il vescovo di Kiev-Žytomyr, mons. Vitaliy Krivitskiy, in un’intervista del Tg2000, il telegiornale di Tv2000, in merito all’attacco missilistico russo di lunedì scorso. “Abbiamo visto finora – ha aggiunto il vescovo di Kiev al microfono dell’inviato del Tg2000, Vito D’Ettorre - che vengono colpiti obiettivi militari ma anche obiettivi civili. Noi, rispetto a questo tipo di aggressione non possiamo fare nulla. Abbiamo di fronte l’inverno e questo ci preoccupa, forse dobbiamo aspettarci un nuovo tipo di guerra contro i civili”.

“Il dialogo – ha concluso mons. Krivitskiy - sarebbe stato più facile nei primi giorni della guerra, nel primo mese. Papa Francesco di recente ha chiesto da un lato a Putin di abbassare le armi, dall’altro a Zelensky di essere aperto a serie proposte di pace. Ma io in questo momento non vedo nulla di tutto questo”.