Weekly Update #47
January 23

Over the weekend of 14 and 15 January, explosions were reported in at least ten of Ukraine’s oblasts, causing additional damage to the energy infrastructure. As temperatures across Ukraine continue to drop, millions are facing unpredictable power, water, and heat outages, and people’s homes continue to be destroyed daily.

The continued targeting of critical civil infrastructure across Ukraine has resulted in widespread electrical, water, and heating disruptions, threatening the well-being of civilian populations in Ukraine amid winter temperatures which often reach below freezing. Although Ukrainian utility providers have made continuous efforts to repair damage and restore utility services following Russian attacks, the effects of electricity cuts and winter weather have driven a slight increase in arrivals of Ukrainian refugees to neighboring countries in recent weeks, according to UNHCR

On 14 January, a ballistic missile hit a residential building in Dnipro in one of the deadliest attacks in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion last February. According to an OHCHR official, at least 45 civilians, including 6 children, were killed and at least 79 people were injured while in their homes. More than 1,000 people have been made homeless as a result of the attack.

Southern Ukraine’s Kherson city and other nearby areas of Kherson Oblast remain subject to daily attacks by Russian Federation forces on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, which regularly results in civilian casualties and damage to critical infrastructure. The shelling also presents significant risks for first responders and humanitarian actors in the area.

Russian shelling on January 15 damaged a Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) facility in Kherson, approximately one month after similar shelling on the city resulted in the death of a URCS volunteer. More recently, Russian forces shelled Kherson Oblast nearly 140 times between January 17 and 18, including nearly 50 strikes on Kherson city, according to Government of Ukraine (GoU) officials. The shelling damaged city infrastructure and multiple residential buildings, injuring four people. Shelling continues in communities near front lines in areas of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Luhansk oblasts in recent days.

Significant numbers of people are expected to remain internally displaced in 2023 and will need alternative housing solutions, jobs, assistance and social, educational and health services in their areas of displacement. In 2023, UNHCR will continue to deliver protection services, emergency shelter and housing support, and cash and in-kind assistance within the framework of the inter-agency humanitarian response, in close coordination with central and local authorities as well as humanitarian and development partners.

Sources: UNHCR Operation Data Portal

UNHCR UNHCR Ukraine Delivery Updates - 18 January 2022

OCHA Ukraine - Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #7, Fiscal Year (FY) 2023

Health facilities suffer extensive damages

Hospitals in Kherson and Ochakiv have been heavily damaged. The Kherson Regional Military Administration (RMA) stated that the region was attacked 76 times in a 24-hour period. There are also reports of deaths due to a landmine left behind by the Russian military, as landmines remain a major threat in the region. The Kherson Regional Military Administration (RMA) stated that the region was attacked 76 times in a 24-hour period. There are also reports of two deaths due to a landmine left behind by the Russian military, as landmines remain a major threat in the region.

The distribution of generators to health facilities to ensure continuity of care remains a key priority for the Health Cluster. As of 16 January, Partners have distributed 378 generators to health facilities across Ukraine. The largest number was distributed in the Kyiv (360), Kharkiv (65) and Kherson (44) oblasts.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo reported that the Russian military carried out 745 attacks on health-care facilities in Ukraine, the largest number of such incidents among all wars in 2022. As a result of the attacks, half of all health-care facilities in the Donetsk, Mykolayiv, Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv oblasts are currently unusable. In Severodonetsk in the Luhansk oblast, the mortality rate has increased fivefold due to lack of critical infrastructure.

Health-care facilities are increasingly being repurposed to treat Russian military personnel, as reported by the National Resistance Center. The tuberculosis dispensary captured by the Russian forces in the city of Kakhovka in the Kherson region is no longer serving civilians and is being used to treat the Russian military forces.

Despite multiple missile strikes and significant damage to infrastructure, resulting in unstable power supply, the National Immunization Programme continued its efforts to vaccinate the most vulnerable population groups in December2022. With direct technical and operational support from the Vaccine-preventable and Immunization Country Office, public health specialists and vaccination teams from eight regions visited 102 collective centres for displaced people, providing information on vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) and vaccination to more than 50,964 displaced persons and delivered 3624 vaccinations, of which more than 2000 were against COVID-19.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused a deterioration in the level of access to health-care services and medicines in the country, particularly for people living in regions close to the front line and areas that are not partially or fully controlled by the Government of Ukraine, and for people who have been internally displaced. Cost and time constraints involved in getting to and from health facilities, as well as limited transportation options were the main barriers to accessing essential health-care services.

Summing up the 324 days of the war, Minister of Health Viktor Liashko stated in a television interview that about one thousand Ukrainian medical facilities have been damaged or destroyed, of which 163 are completely destroyed and cannot be restored.

Source: OCHA War in Ukraine: situation report from WHO Ukraine country office. Issue No. 41, 18 January 2023

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

(As of January 15, 2023)

Total civilian casualties from 24 February to 15 January 2023

From 24 February to 2 January 2023, OHCHR recorded 18,358 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 7,031 killed (2,784 men, 1,875 women, 177 girls, and 221 boys, as well as 35 children and 1,939 adults whose sex is yet unknown)

• 11,327 injured (2,472 men, 1,764 women, 240 girls, and 325 boys, as well as 262 children and 6,264 adults whose sex is yet unknown)

Total civilian casualties from 1-15 January 2023

From 1 to 15 January 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 388 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 104 killed (36 men, 21 women, 1 girl, 2 boys, as well 44 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and

• 284 injured (80 men, 39 women, 6 girls, 4 boys, as well as 8 children and 147 adults whose sex is yet unknown.

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes.

Source: OHCHR Ukraine: civilian casualty update 16 January 2023

THE HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE

UNOCHA releases summary report on Ukraine’s Humanitarian Needs

The UN Office of the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released a comprehensive report, The Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, as the war nears its one-year milestone.

The 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) was developed in parallel to a massive response scale-up in what continues to be a highly dynamic operational environment. The 2023 HNO covers Ukraine’s 24 oblasts and the city of Kyiv, including areas under the control of the Government of Ukraine (GCA), and areas under the temporary military control of the Russian Federation (excluding the Crimea and Sevastopol), and three population groups (internally displaced people, returnees, and those who remain at home).

The analysis of humanitarian needs was informed by an extensive review of secondary and primary data, with feedback from field consultations and expert judgement used to fine-tune the indicator-based intersectoral severity of needs assessment. The number of people in need (PiN) was calculated based on cluster estimates and analysis.

Report Highlights

Some 17.6 million people are projected to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023, 45 per cent of whom are women, and 23 per cent children. Of the 17.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 6.3 million are internally displaced, 83 4.4 million are returnees, and 6.9 million remain in their homes. More than half of the people in need are assessed to have "severe" severity of needs (52 per cent), while 28 per cent have "catastrophic" severity of needs.

Internally displaced people in need of assistance are located across the country, with higher numbers in Donetska oblast (east, 685,000), Kharkivska oblast (east, 664,000), followed by Dnipropetrovska oblast (east, 501,000), Kyivska oblast (north, 496,000) and Kyiv (north, 328,000).

The highest severity of needs is among people living in areas under the temporary military control of the Russian Federation and in areas directly affected by active hostilities, with over 70 per cent of the assessed raions outside the control of the Government of Ukraine in the highest severity level 5 (23 raions out of 32 raions). Severity level 5 means that population in these areas experienced a collapse of living standards, an exhaustion of coping mechanisms, widespread physical and mental harm and violations of human rights.

Among people who remain in towns and villages, the highest needs are in the east, especially among older people, people with disabilities and other segments of population who are less likely to flee due to reasons which include reduced mobility, reluctance to abandon their homes and the lack of economic resources. This represents a continued pattern in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

The most vulnerable internally displaced people include those currently living in collective centres (Collective centres include educational facilities such as schools, kindergartens, university dormitories, as well as sport facilities, factories, offices, and churches, and are not suitable for a long-term stay). Many of the centres are not properly equipped to meet long-term accommodation needs, and urgently need heating and fuel, construction repairs, bathing facilities, and other multisectoral assistance.

Displaced people living outside of collective centres, particularly those in rural areas across Ukraine, are likely to face problems in accessing services and assistance. Some 14 per cent of internally displaced people in need of assistance are estimated to be in areas under the temporary military control of the Russian Federation, where the response is currently limited due to access challenges.

Three risk drivers have been identified that may trigger new displacement and deepen humanitarian needs:

· Disruptions to electricity and heating supply -- It is likely that a significant disruption of the electricity and heating supply may result in displacements, likely from the east towards the western and central oblasts, or to neighbouring countries

· Continuation and intensification of the war – An escalation may also include mandatory evacuations.

· Radio-nuclear emergency and other environmental risks – Continued shelling near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the largest in Europe, which is situated in an area under the temporary military control of the Russian Federation, and continued threat of use of nuclear weapons have increased the risk of a radio-nuclear emergency.

The full report presents a needs analysis across populations and sectors, based on extensive field experiences.

Source: OCHA Ukraine Humanitarian Needs Overview 2023 (Issued December 2022)

Humanitarian aid in Ukraine

On January 18, a UN-organized convoy delivered humanitarian assistance to Kharkiv Oblast’s Vovchansk town, approximately three miles from Ukraine’s border with Russia. The seven-truck convoy—which transported commodities from USAID/BHA partners IOM and UNICEF and State/PRM partner UNHCR—delivered blankets, hygiene kits, shelter kits, sleeping bags, and solar lamps to more than 10,000 households. The WFP also participated in the convoy to assess markets to inform future deliveries to the area.

Similarly, a UN-led convoy arrived near Donetsk Oblast’s frontline town of Soledar on January 20, which has been the focal point of intense conflict in recent months. With support from IOM, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO, the three-truck convoy delivered food, hygiene items, essential medicines, and safe drinking water sufficient for approximately 800 people remaining in communities surrounding the town, according to the UN. The convoy and two other UN-organized deliveries in early January represent the latest in a series of efforts by humanitarian organizations to reach populations in critical need in frontline areas.

In close coordination with local authorities, UNHCR is equipping heating points, Invincibility Points, and bomb shelters. As of 18 January, UNHCR has delivered 90 generators to 22 oblasts with more than 170 in the pipeline for delivery.

Heaters continue to be in high demand. 594 IDPs residing in three villages of Kyivska and Khmelnytska oblast were supported with the distribution of lamps and electric heaters conducted by UNHCR and other local IDP-led NGOs,

Sources: UNHCR Ukraine Situation Flash Update #38 (16 January 2023)

WFP Limited Emergency Operation - Ukraine External Situation Report #33 (6 January 2023)

USAID Ukraine - Complex Emergency Fact Sheet #7, Fiscal Year (FY) 2023

Supporting the winterization response in Ukraine

With the government of Japan and local partners, UN Operations Support is supporting people in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Region, who are especially vulnerable to the ongoing conflict amid a cold winter.

The escalation of conflict in Ukraine has brought massive devastation in urban centres. The widescale loss of vital infrastructure, including residential buildings and energy networks, has severely disrupted critical public services and left millions of people in crisis – a situation made even more dire by the freezing winter temperatures.

The current effort strengthens UNOPS and the government of Japan’s partnership as well as their mutual commitments to support the people of Ukraine during the conflict. With prior funding from Japan, UNOPS procured health equipment worth $4.5 million, helping hospitals deliver key services. In May 2022, UNOPS also delivered more than 100 tonnes of emergency relief supplies, donated by the government and people of Japan to vulnerable people in Ukraine.

Source: UNOPS Supporting the winterization response in Ukraine

USAID Announces Additional $125 Million in Urgent Energy Support for Ukraine

At the World Economic Forum, USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced the Administration's intent to work with Congress to provide $125 million to support the resilience of Ukraine’s energy and utility infrastructure in the face of the Russian Federation’s relentless, systematic attacks. Funding will be drawn from the 2023 Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act passed in December.

USAID will utilize the $125 million to procure vital equipment including additional gas turbines, high voltage autotransformers, distribution substation repair equipment, and backup power for Kyiv’s water supply and district heating services.

This new funding comes in addition to significant USAID assistance to Ukraine’s energy sector since the start of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion. USAID has already delivered 1,548 generators to 22 oblasts across Ukraine, with many more on the way. These generators ensure electricity and heating for schools, hospitals, accommodation centers for internally-displaced persons, district heating companies, and water systems if and when power is knocked out by Russia’s air strikes.

USAID has invested $55 million in Ukraine’s heating infrastructure to help the Ukrainian people get through winter. This assistance will benefit up to seven million Ukrainians by supporting repairs and maintenance of pipes and other equipment necessary to deliver heating to homes, hospitals, schools, and businesses across Ukraine. This support builds on over two decades of support to Ukraine to strengthen the country’s energy security.

The U.S. government remains committed to supporting the government and people of Ukraine in responding to the Russian Federation’s brutal war against them. The $12.6 billion in U.S. direct budget support to the Government of Ukraine has helped maintain critical government services, such as paying salaries of first responders, meeting pension obligations to support vulnerable citizens, and maintaining hospitals. In addition, the U.S. government has provided more than $1.9 billion in humanitarian assistance to millions of people, both in Ukraine and in neighboring countries, who have been forced to flee their homes and communities since February 2022.

In addition to strengthening Ukraine’s energy security during wartime, USAID assistance helps farmers in Ukraine to continue growing food for domestic and global markets, supports Ukrainian efforts to document and seek accountability for war crimes and human rights abuses, fills key gaps in Ukraine’s health system, and helps local government bodies in 91 communities respond to challenges caused by Putin’s brutal invasion.

Source: USAID Announces Additional $125 Million in Urgent Energy Support for Ukraine

European Commission disburses first 3 Billion euros to Ukraine of the up to 18 billion Macro-financial Assistance package

On January 17, 2023, the Commission disbursed a first instalment of €3 billion of the up to €18 billion Macro-financial Assistance+ (MFA+) package for Ukraine. This follows the swift adoption and entry into force of the MFA+ Regulation mid-December 2022, less than two months following the request from the European Council meeting on 20-21 October 2022.

What is the MFA+ package and how does it work?

With the stable, regular and predictable financial support of up to €18 billion for 2023 under this instrument, Ukraine will be able to keep on paying wages and pensions and maintain essential public services running, such as hospitals, schools, and housing for relocated people. It will also allow Ukraine to ensure macroeconomic stability and restore critical infrastructure destroyed by Russia in its war of aggression, such as energy infrastructure, water systems, transport networks, roads and bridges.

In comparison to standard MFA operations, and to reflect the current circumstances in Ukraine, this MFA+ instrument offers Ukraine increased flexibility and more favourable borrowing terms. Ukraine will need to repay the highly concessional loans over up to 35 years,

This MFA+ instrument offers Ukraine increased flexibility and more favourable borrowing terms. Ukraine will need to repay the highly concessional loans over up to 35 years, starting from 2033. In a further expression of solidarity, the EU has also offered to cover the interest rate costs of Ukraine, supported where needed through additional payments by Member States into the EU budget. EU Member States and third countries will moreover be able to contribute further funds into the instrument, to be used as grants, should they wish to do so. The funds will then be channelled through the EU budget, allowing Ukraine to receive the support in a coordinated manner.

Since the start of the war, the overall Team Europe assistance pledged to Ukraine by the European Union, EU Member States, and European financial institutions amounts to up to €49 billion. The EU's efforts to support Ukraine come on top of the comprehensive set of actions put forward to tackle the dramatic consequences of Russia's war of aggression. The invasion has led to the ramping up of energy prices and of the overall cost of living for citizens in the EU.

Since February 2022, the European Commission has allocated €523 million for humanitarian aid programmes to help civilians affected by the war in Ukraine. This includes respectively €485 million for Ukraine and €38 million for Moldova.

President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Supporting Ukraine in meeting its financing needs to face the Russian aggression is both crucial and urgent. Today's disbursement of the first €3 billion of the up to €18 billion in macro-financial support agreed in December shows that the Commission is acting with the utmost speed and determination .”

Sources: Commission disburses first €3 billion to Ukraine of the up to €18 billion Macro-financial Assistance+ package

EU Solidarity with Ukraine

HOLY FATHER ON UKRAINE

General Audience - January 18, 2023

E non dimentichiamo di pregare per la martoriata Ucraina, tanto bisognosa di vicinanza, di conforto e soprattutto di pace. Sabato scorso un nuovo attacco missilistico ha causato molte vittime civili, tra cui bambini. Faccio mio il dolore straziante dei familiari. Le immagini e le testimonianze di questo tragico episodio sono un forte appello a tutte le coscienze. Non si può rimanere indifferenti!

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Angelus - January 22, 2023

In these days, as we pray in particular for the full unity of all Christians, please, let us not forget, to pray for peace for war-torn Ukraine. May the Lord comfort and sustain that people who are suffering so much! They are suffering so much!

In questi giorni, mentre preghiamo in particolare per la piena unità di tutti i cristiani, non dimentichiamo, per favore, di invocare la pace per la martoriata Ucraina: il Signore conforti e sostenga quel popolo che soffre tanto! Soffre tanto!

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