Amin Awad, the United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, called on Saturday for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, as UN aid supplies arrive in the country.
Amin Awad, the United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, called on Saturday for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, as UN aid supplies arrive in the country.
Amin Awad, the United Nations Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, called on Saturday for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces, as UN aid supplies arrive in the country.
“Slave” tattoos, electric shock devices, and plastic bracelets. These are examples of the kinds of objects and physical abuses deployed by human traffickers to control, torture, and brand their victims, and which are crucial to securing a conviction.
This Week in DPPA is a brief roundup of political and peacebuilding events and developments at UNHQ and around the world.
|
|
|
|
|
Amid reports of dwindling food supplies in embattled areas in Ukraine, the World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday began ramping up operations, warning that the conflict could have consequences beyond the country.
UN humanitarians on Friday described as “unprecedented,” the continuing outflow of children and families fleeing the “relentless shelling” of Russian military action in Ukraine – as they await assurances for the safe passage of relief teams to provide urgently needed assistance.
Madam President,
The Secretary-General is gravely concerned by the escalating fighting throughout Ukraine. Ukrainian cities are today under siege and facing repeated attacks.
Over one million Ukrainians have already crossed Ukraine’s borders and have been welcomed by their European neighbours. We applaud such solidarity and support. Everyone seeking refuge should be afforded protection without any form of discrimination.
Millions of Ukrainians who remain in the country are being subjected to heavy, often indiscriminate, bombardment and shelling. There are thousands of casualties and their number is growing.
The UN is significantly increasing its humanitarian assistance in Ukraine to respond to the escalating crisis.
Madam President,
The Secretary-General has followed with great alarm reports of heavy fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. We understand that the fire affected a training facility and not the cooling system or power center.
Military operations around nuclear sites and other critical civilian infrastructure are not only unacceptable but highly irresponsible.
Ukraine knows only too well the devastation of a major nuclear accident. The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 stands as a lasting example of why it is vital to ensure all nuclear power plants have the highest standards of safety and security.
Every effort should be taken to avoid a catastrophic nuclear incident.
The persistence and bravery of the Ukrainian personnel who continue to keep power plants safely operational during this crisis are to be applauded.
Madam President,
Attacks on nuclear power facilities are contrary to international humanitarian law. Specifically, Article 56 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention, states that: “Works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, dykes and nuclear electrical generating stations, shall not be made the object of attack, even where these objects are military objectives, if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population.”
The Secretary-General welcomes the statements and actions by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on this issue and is ready to assist however he can.
It is vital that all parties work with the IAEA to establish an appropriate framework that will ensure the safe, secure and reliable operation of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
Urgent and safe passage should be granted to IAEA personnel should they need to travel to Ukraine to work with regulators.
Madam President,
We welcome the reported agreement between the Ukrainian and Russian negotiators during their second round of talks in Belarus yesterday. We understand the discussion focused on the establishment of humanitarian corridors to allow safe passage for civilians and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
We hope that this reported agreement is implemented without delay and that a full and unconditional ceasefire is quickly agreed and enacted.
We urge the sides to continue negotiations and to make urgent progress on security, humanitarian and other issues.
Madam President,
As the Secretary-General has emphatically stated, the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognized borders, must be respected, in line with General Assembly resolutions.
What we are witnessing in Ukraine today is inconsistent with the principles of the UN Charter.
Only diplomacy and negotiations can achieve a truly lasting solution to the current conflict.
The fighting in Ukraine must stop. And it must stop now.
Thank you, Madam President.
On World Obesity Day, marked on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to do more to reverse what is a preventable health crisis.
After Russian forces took control overnight of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in south-eastern Ukraine, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said on Friday that it there was “no release of radioactive material” and that it continued to be operated by its regular staff.
Heavy fighting reported overnight at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power is both unacceptable and “highly irresponsible,” the UN’s senior political affairs official told the Security Council during an emergency meeting on Friday, while assuring members that radiation levels are normal and the facility’s cooling system was not affected.
Russia’s military attack on Ukraine has “opened a new and dangerous chapter in world history,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told an urgent debate on Thursday, leading calls for a ceasefire.
The World Health Organization (WHO), for the first time, included an oral antiviral drug in its COVID-19 treatment guidance.
The “senseless war” in Ukraine has forced one million people to flee the country in just seven days, while countless others have been displaced within its borders, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Thursday.
The “senseless war” in Ukraine has forced one million people to flee the country in just seven days, while countless others have been displaced within its borders, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Thursday.
Six months after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, it is time for concerned countries to deepen their engagement with the country’s new authorities and take action to prevent an irreversible economic collapse, the top UN official in Kabul told the Security Council on Wednesday.
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution on Wednesday demanding that Russia immediately end its military operations in Ukraine.
On day seven of the Ukraine crisis, UN-led efforts to ramp up support to the country’s embattled health workers have continued, with the first shipment of lifesaving supplies due to arrive in neighbouring Poland in the coming hours.
The conflict in Ukraine could put the safety of nuclear facilities there at risk, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned on Wednesday.
The number of people fleeing the Russian onslaught in Ukraine surpassed 874,000 as of Wednesday morning New York time, data from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has revealed.
Rockets have been “raining down” on Ukraine’s cities and hundreds of people have been killed or injured since the Russian military offensive began, the UN Secretary-General said on Tuesday, at the launch of a $1.7 billion flash appeal to provide urgently-needed assistance.
Well over 600,000 people have fled Ukraine in under a week, since Russia’s military offensive began, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, as they issued an appeal to protect civilians from further bloodshed.
After three days of intense clashes across areas in parts of Ukraine, the number of civilian casualties and damage to critical infrastructure are growing, and the United Nations and its relief partners are working day and night to care for the injured, the Security Council heard on Monday during an urgent meeting on the humanitarian situation in the country.
The intensification of the Russian offensive in Ukraine is having devastating consequences on women and children, senior UN officials have reported.
Impunity for the use of chemical weapons is “intolerable,” the UN disarmament chief told the Security Council meeting on Syria, held on Monday morning.
As fighting escalates in Ukraine, UN Member States met on Monday for a rare emergency special session of the General Assembly to discuss the crisis.
Fighting in Ukraine has so far pushed roughly a half million people across the country's borders, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Monday.
Fighting in Ukraine has so far pushed more than 500,000 people across the country's borders, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Monday.
The Security Council voted on Sunday to call for a rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, which will be held on Monday.
Even before the recent events that “convulsed the world” last week, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator reminded that an eight-year-long conflict in Eastern Ukraine had already level three million people in need of humanitarian assistance “on both sides of the contact line”.
Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Friday that would have demanded that Moscow immediately stop its aggression against Ukraine and withdraw all troops, a move several Council members said was deplorable, but inevitable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Perpetrators responsible for recent escalating violence in Unity state, South Sudan, must be held accountable, the UN Mission in the country, UNMISS, said in a statement on Friday.
As the Syrian war has driven poverty and hunger to levels higher than at any previous point, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Friday that he would continue to focus on engaging the parties to bring an end to the protracted conflict.
Amid reported deadly missile attacks from Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, including the capital Kiev and other cities, terrified families have been forced to seek shelter underground, the UN said on Friday, adding that at least 100,000 people have likely been displaced by the violence.
Amid reported deadly missile attacks from Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, including the capital Kiev and other cities, terrified families have been forced to seek shelter underground, the UN said on Friday, adding that at least 100,000 people have likely been displaced by the violence.
Political leaders in Iraq must urgently overcome their divisions and work for the good of the people, the top UN official in the country told the Security Council on Thursday.
Russian military operations inside the sovereign territory of Ukraine “on a scale that Europe has not seen in decades, conflict directly with the United Nations Charter,” Secretary-General António Guterres told journalists on Thursday.
Amid reports on Thursday that people were fleeing en masse from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev following Russia’s so-called “special military operation,” UN humanitarians warned of the “devastating” consequences of military action.
“President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine, give peace a chance,” Secretary-General António Guterres urged Wednesday evening at the start of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the body's second late night session this week.
Mr. President,
Earlier today, the so-called authorities of the “Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics” requested military assistance from the Russian Federation.
Also today, the Ukrainian authorities declared a nationwide state of emergency and announced other related defense and security measures, including the mobilization of reservists.
Throughout the day we have seen disturbing reports of continued heavy shelling across the contact line and civilian and military casualties. There are also reports of the repeated targeting of civilian infrastructure.
This evening, different media are carrying reports of an ongoing large-scale military buildup and of military columns moving towards Ukraine. The Russian Federation has also reportedly shut airspace to civilian aircraft near the border with Ukraine.
The UN cannot verify any of these reports. But if these developments were confirmed, they would greatly aggravate an already dangerous situation.
The Ukrainian authorities are also reporting a new large-scale cyber-attack targeting several state and financial institutions.
Mr. President,
President Zelenskyy earlier this evening called for continued diplomacy. Separately, President Putin also spoke about his continued readiness to engage in dialogue.
We encourage such efforts, even at this late hour.
Mr. President,
UN staff remain on the ground to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine. We are committed to staying and delivering. All parties must ensure their safety and security. Respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law is also paramount.
We cannot predict exactly what will happen in the coming hours and days in Ukraine. What is clear is the unacceptably high cost – in human suffering and destruction – of an escalation.
The people of Ukraine want peace. And I’m certain the people of Russia want peace. We must do everything in our power to ensure that peace prevails.
The destabilizing deterioration of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory continues in the absence of political solutions that would “reset the trajectory”, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said on Wednesday.
The United Nations will work together with the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as other partners, in ensuring security in the eastern part of the country, said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN’s top peacekeeping official.
The world is facing “a moment of peril,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told a General Assembly session on Wednesday dedicated to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
The latest developments in Ukraine are testing “the entire international system”, Secretary-General António Guterres said at a media stakeout on Tuesday, adding “we must pass this test.”
