What the UN and EU say about the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine

Discussion at the Columbia University, New York

An interesting discussion took place last night at the Columbia University (NYC) with Mr. Udo Janz, the UNHCR (The UN Refugee Agency), Mr. Jesus Diaz Carazo, the First Secretary of Humanitarian Affairs at the EU Delegation to the UN and Mr. Dragan Markovich, Emergency Office at the UNICEF. All three of them agreed that the political crisis was the catalyst for the refugee crisis and internally displaced persons (IDP) in Ukraine. As soon as politicians can sit down at the table and resolve their differences, humanitarian crisis will be fixed.

Some numbers

According to the report by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “since mid-April 2014, at least 6,116 people have been killed and 15,491 wounded in the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine.”

According to the Ministry of Social Policy (MoSP), “by 15 April 2015, MoSP had registered 1,228,090 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine.”

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), “by 16 April, 800,961 Ukrainians had sought asylum, residence permits or other forms of legal stay in neighboring countries. This includes 659,143 individuals in Russia and an additional 81,023 individuals in Belarus.”

Read full UN report here.

Another point that all three panelists agreed on was that the Ukrainian government was solely responsible for helping all these people inside the country. They should provide the legal framework that would protect IDPs, better coordinate situations on the local levels and most importantly provide access for the humanitarian NGOs to delivery aid to those in need.

UNHCR, EU and other NGOs will help in the time of crisis, but Ukraine should develop mid- and long-term strategy how to protect and provide for its citizens.

Children, elderly people, disabled and sick are taking the biggest hit in this humanitarian crisis. They are in the most need of medications, food, and shelters.

The world had witnessed a number of humanitarian disasters in the past. Ukraine must learn the lessons how to manage its current crisis and not to repeat their mistakes. As pointed Mr. Dragan Markovich, whatever steps Ukrainian government makes to fix the crisis, they must include affected people in its policies. Mr. Udo Janz made an excellent remark, that if the current government in Ukraine wants to win the hearts and minds of residents of eastern regions, it should not cut off the supply of pensions and other critical necessities that people desperately need to survive. Mr. Jesus Diaz Carazo, the representative of the EU say,"the EU continues providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine as well as individual member states deliver assistant to Ukraine directly."  

And finally, my favorite comment was made by Mr. Udo Janz, who said that the question of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is fading away from the headlines and TV screens. Now Syria makes 9 of 10 news stories. We must keep talking about the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and not let people pushed it off the agendas.

Let us taking steps to fix the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. 

This event was co-sponsored by Columbia Human Rights Graduate Group, SIPA Human Rights Working Group, Ukrainian Students Society at Columbia, Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia, NGO Razom, and NGO EU Association.