More than 14,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, where Moscow launched a new major assault on May 10, the World Health Organization announced Tuesday.
“Over the past two weeks, fighting in the Kharkiv region” in northeastern Ukraine “has sharply intensified,” said WHO Representative to Ukraine Dr. Jarno Habicht. during a press briefing in Geneva, via video link from Kiev.
“More than 14,000 people have been displaced in a matter of days and nearly 189,000 others still live within 25 kilometers of the border with the Russian Federation, facing significant risks due to ongoing fighting,” he said. -he says.
He clarified that these were the figures that the WHO had after speaking with local authorities and noted that some of these people had traveled to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, while Others had gone elsewhere.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ukrainian authorities have evacuated more than 10,300 people from villages in the border areas of the Kharkiv region, while others left on their own, explained a spokesperson in Geneva, Shabia Mantoo, during the press briefing.
The vast majority of them registered at a transit center in Kharkiv and “expressed a clear wish to stay” in the city, “to be able to return when the situation allows,” she said. .
The ground assault launched by the Russian army in this border area, after an intensification of air attacks, allowed it to record its most significant territorial gains since the end of 2022. The Russian progression has now been stopped, says kyiv, this which Moscow refutes.
The UNHCR said on Tuesday it was “extremely concerned” by “the increase in humanitarian needs and [du nombre] forced displacements” following the Russian offensive.
The UN agency fears in particular that “conditions in Kharkiv, which already hosts some 200,000 internally displaced people, will become even more difficult if the ground offensive and incessant air attacks continue,” said Ms. Mantoo.
“This could force many people to leave Kharkiv for safety and survival reasons and seek protection elsewhere,” she added.
The cost of the UN 2024 humanitarian plan in Ukraine is $3.1 billion this year, but it is only 23.07% funded.
However, warned Dr. Habicht, “with the deterioration of the security situation, the humanitarian needs in the region [de Kharkiv] are increasing, and increasing rapidly,” noting that WHO had deployed additional staff on site.