The head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ukraine said on Wednesday she was “shocked” by Russia’s “indiscriminate attacks” on aid agency installations and other civilian infrastructure in Kherson.
“I am shocked by the news that a new wave of indiscriminate attacks by the Russian Federation today damaged essential facilities and supplies of at least three humanitarian organizations in Kherson,” he said. Denise Brown wrote in a statement.
According to the UN’s Canadian Coordinator, the warehouses of the Ukrainian Red Cross and local humanitarian organization Shchedryk “were burned down, destroying much-needed relief supplies.”
The facilities of the Swiss organization HEKS/EPER were also hit during the attack in Kherson, southern Ukraine, which injured people and also hit health facilities and homes.
“These attacks have an impact on the ability of [agentes] preventing humanitarian workers from doing their work to save lives and ultimately denying citizens access to aid when they need it most,” warns Denise Brown.
Denise Brown emphasizes that the people of Kherson, and all those living along the front lines in the east and south of the country, “are in fact the victims of this war; The level of destruction is enormous and, with the Axis Winter beginning, help is needed more than ever.”
Indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas are prohibited, the OCHA coordinator recalled “humanitarian workers, facilities and assets are protected by international humanitarian law.”
Last night, Russia hit Ukraine again with air strikes, firing several drones at the capital Kiev and Kharkiv, in the east of the country, and wounding nine people in Kherson, local authorities announced.
“During the shelling of Kherson tonight by the Russian occupiers, nine people were injured, including four children” between the ages of 2 and 13, the city’s mayor Roman Mrochko said on the Telegram network.
Among the injured is “a mother and her three children were hospitalized,” he added, specifying that five other people were being treated at the scene.
Since the fall, Moscow has stepped up night-time attacks on Ukrainian cities, at a time when doubts are being raised about continued Western military support for Kiev.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 the argument to protect pro-Russian separatist minorities in the east and ‘denazify’ the neighboring country, independent since 1991 after the collapse of the former Soviet Union and which has since broken away from Moscow’s sphere of influence and moved closer to Europe and the West.
The war in Ukraine has already caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, but no significant progress has been made in recent months, with the two warring sides remaining irreducible to their territorial positions and unopen to negotiating concessions.
Source: DN
