While the government in Ukraine is already planning for the reconstruction, there is still little prospect of peace in the country. Civilian targets in Kremenchuk, Kyiv and Odesa, among others, have come under fire from the air over the past week and daily fighting continues on the front lines. As a result, the demand for aid continues to grow, says director Tineke Ceelen of the Refugee Foundation.
In recent weeks, Ceelen and her team traveled close to the front lines and the Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine. She tells NU.nl what she encountered along the way.
“Many places have become ghost towns,” Ceelen says. She describes ruined and boarded up houses, wrapped statues, sandbags on the road and empty streets. In the distance there are regular dull claps, day and night the air-raid siren goes off.
The streets in neighborhoods near the front line are virtually empty; women and children fled, most of the men joined the army. Ceelen: “Vulnerable people were left behind, such as the elderly and people with disabilities.”
More help is urgently needed to assist this group of citizens that have been left behind, says Ceelen. “There is a shortage of everything, the need is unprecedentedly high.” For example, there is little or no gas, electricity or running water in the conflict areas, such as parts of Kharkiv and surrounding villages.
In the eastern regions of the country, supermarket shelves are empty. There has also been no fuel since the start of the war and the hospitals urgently need painkillers, antibiotics and bandages. In addition, there is a great need for shelter and psychological help for refugees from the immediate conflict zones.
Aid organizations prepare for protracted conflict
According to Ceelen, much of the humanitarian aid is currently arranged by the Ukrainian government and the population itself. They offer each other water, food and shelter; the rubble is cleared together. “All Ukrainians have become volunteers, it seems.”
International organizations provide medicines and emergency supplies such as food and toilet paper on a large scale. They also assist Ukrainians in clearing explosives or providing assistance to victims of sexual violence.
The question is how long this system can be kept. According to Ceelen, it does not appear that the war in Ukraine will end any time soon. “We must prepare for a long conflict.” It’s the same errand which Rosemary DiCarlo, head of United Nations peacebuilding, brought to the Security Council on June 28: the suffering is unprecedented and, as it looks now, far from over.
Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine.
Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine. Photo: NU.nl
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Europe is experiencing worst refugee crisis since WWII
The need for help continues and is only increasing. According to Numbers of the UN Humanitarian Coordination Office, 15.7 million Ukrainians are currently in need and more than 10 million people are in urgent need of food aid.
An estimated 6.3 million people are displaced within Ukraine’s land borders, and an additional 5.5 million people across Europe. It results in what “the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II”.
According to Ceelen, the size of the refugee flow is a growing problem. Because now that civilian targets are being bombed across the country, there is a chance that many more people will flee. An increasing number of people therefore need food, medication and shelter.
“The money that the Netherlands has collected with Giro555 (168.9 million euros, ed.) is an extremely high amount. But with these needs, this state of devastation, you can quickly get through it.”
Ceelen is concerned about the coming winter, with temperatures around 20 degrees below zero in eastern Ukraine, where there is no gas and little electricity. “We will have to be creative in the coming period to meet the challenges of the autumn.”
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