Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths Remarks to the UN Security Council on Ukraine New York, 6 December 2022

Madam President,

We have discussed the situation in Ukraine on numerous occasions in this Council, yet the torment it continues to bring to the people of Ukraine and beyond is colossal.

Today I will brief on the widespread death, destruction, displacement and suffering caused by this senseless war, ongoing humanitarian operations and the challenges that the humanitarian community continues to face.

Over 14 million people remain forcibly displaced from their homes in Ukraine, including 6.5 million internally displaced in Ukraine, and over 7.8 million refugees recorded across Europe.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as of the 5th December, there have been 17,181 civilian casualties, since 24 February 2022, including 6,702 killed. However, I think we all know that the real toll is far greater.

The World Health Organization reports at least 715 attacks on health care in the country, including 630 that impacted health facilities and 61 that affected personnel. These attacks in Ukraine represent more than 70 per cent of all attacks on health infrastructure reported worldwide this year.

Since February, 1,148 children have been killed or injured while millions have fled, uprooted from their homes, separated from their families or put at risk of violence.

Madam President, winter has now arrived across Ukraine. Temperatures are already below freezing and are expected to drop to below -20 degrees Celsius.

The attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including power stations and heating plants, have left millions of people without access to heat, electricity, and water, adding another dangerous dimension to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war.

As a result of the attacks on civilian infrastructure, people are being deprived of health care and children deprived of education. In Ukraine today, the ability of civilians to survive is under attack.

Amid freezing temperatures and destruction, people at the highest risk are the already vulnerable – among them, the elderly, those with disabilities and the many millions displaced to which I referred earlier – because of a lack of essential services.

International humanitarian law speaks for itself: Objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population must be protected; Constant care must be taken to spare civilians and civilian objects throughout all military operations.

Gender-based violence targeting women and girls continues to be pervasive, and we are very clearly under-reporting.

Madam President, our work is to safeguard life and preserve dignity.

The humanitarian community remains committed, still, to stay and deliver.

Almost 690 humanitarian partners – the majority of which are local, frontline organizations – have provided life-critical aid and protection services to 13.5 million people.

These are terrifying statistics.

I have profound gratitude for their endurance and commitment to the response.

They are working against the clock to support civilians with vital services and supplies for the winter.

Over the past few months, in preparation for the winter, humanitarians have provided more than 630,000 civilians with different kinds of direct winter assistance, and 400 generators have been distributed to critical facilities.

Since October, the sustained attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have created a new level of need that impacts the whole country and increases the needs caused by the war. The scale of destruction of the electrical and heating infrastructure requires the international community’s enhanced support to the Government of Ukraine beyond what humanitarians can provide. And indeed there are discussions to this end in Kyiv and elsewhere.

In recent weeks, more areas have become accessible in eastern and southern oblasts, allowing humanitarians to reach entirely new communities with assistance. And we are grateful for this.

Our teams are responding and interagency convoys are moving to bring aid to areas where Ukraine has recently regained control. In Kherson, for example, convoys have delivered much-needed potable water for thousands of civilians, medical supplies to treat 100,000 people for up to three months and assistance for women and girls’ reproductive health. And food assistance has been delivered in Kherson for nearly 100,000 civilians.

Humanitarians working to respond to gender-based violence, including in particular local women's organizations, also are seeking to scale up the delivery of essential services for women and girls. An integrated network of spaces and providers has been delivering survivor-centered services for women, girls, boys and men who have been subject to gender-based violence.

And these efforts and activities which began at the beginning of the war continue.

Some 765,000 children – I find it difficult to imagine this - received psycho-social support to help them deal with the distressing effects of the war and displacement. Mobile teams are operating in centres for internally displaced are identifying, registering, assessing and providing direct support to children with protection needs.

None of this would be possible without the unprecedented Member State and other donor support to the Ukraine Flash Appeal. To date we have received as a result of that generosity $3.1 billion received of the $4.3 billion required through the end of this year.

To date, we have transferred almost $1 billion in humanitarian cash transfers to more than 4.3 million people.

Cash as a mode of delivery has come to its maturity as a result of the tragic events in Ukraine.

But more must be done to close the funding shortfall. Continued support is critical to sustain humanitarian operations through 2023.

Madam President,

While there have been some improvements in humanitarian access, the biggest challenge remains the impediments to reaching areas in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Discussions continue between the UN and the parties to facilitate unimpeded access to those areas. It is vital that humanitarians that we get the convoys through to deliver relief items. OCHA has established a presence in Moscow and I continue to personally engage key interlocutors for access, in Moscow, in Kyiv, and in meetings elsewhere.

Today, of the 13.5 million people reached since February, some one million of these people are in areas outside of Government of Ukraine control. They have been reached thanks to humanitarian partners positioned still in areas in Donetsk and Luhansk, where humanitarian operations had begun since 2014. While we continue to provide support in these regions through our local partners – and there are still international staff in those areas – our response is neither regular nor at the right scale.

Under IHL again, all parties must allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need and must ensure that personnel have the freedom of movement required for their work.

In areas where the Government of Ukraine has recently regained control, the presence of landmines and explosive remnants of war is a major concern for communities and, of course, the humanitarians that serve them and causes delays and impediments in the restoration of essential services, including electricity.

States must bolster their support for clearance to prevent further casualties by these mines, restore safe access to livelihoods and essential services and allow humanitarians to safely bring aid in. Information on mines and used or abandoned explosive ordnance should be shared by those who know at the earliest possible time.

Madam President,

Last week, in Geneva, I launched the Global Humanitarian Overview which is our annual assessment of global humanitarian needs and how to respond to them.

At the beginning of 2022, 274 million people needed humanitarian assistance. For 2023, the projected number of people in need has grown to 339 million from 274 million. This is an increase of nearly 24 per cent, or 65 million people have arrived at our doorstep. One in every 23 people on the planet.

As we have said publicly, that is a population of the third most populous country in the world.

This record appeal – and it will be difficult to get adequate funding – is a stark reminder of how fast humanitarian needs are accelerating. This is especially true for Ukraine.

So I end partly about Ukraine and the urgent needs as we move into winter, and as we see the damage to infrastructure, and as we see potential for more displacement.

We place that within the larger context of a world gone mad which sees one in 23 people in need of humanitarian assistance around the globe. Which is a picture that is unimaginable.

Thank you, Madam President.