UNITED NATIONS, August 24 (RIA Novosti) – The United Nation’s Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos on Sunday visited a refugee shelter in eastern Ukraine where she talked with displaced people affected by Kiev’s ongoing military operation and called for an end to fighting.
“I met families who had to leave all their possessions behind as their homes were reduced to rubble. They all said the same thing. The fighting must stop so we can feel safe again,” Amos said.
Earlier in the day, the UN aid chief visited an internally displacement persons' center in Krasnyi Lyman, a city in the Donetsk Region.
According to the UN, she “met women who had fled the fighting with their families.” The UN statement noted that “since March this year, around 200,000 people have fled their homes in search of safety within Ukraine and tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries.”
Amos concluded, “As winter approaches, assistance must be scaled up. Many of those displaced are already vulnerable and the temporary shelters housing them will not withstand the cold temperatures. We need to provide people with support so that they can cope through the winter.”
Back on August 5, UN official John Ging, the director of operations of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the Security Council that “since the start of the year 168,677 Ukrainians are registered as having crossed into Russia, with nearly 60,000 of these having applied for refugee status and a further 115,952 having applied for other forms of legal stay.”
Ging acknowledged that “this is not the full picture as many Ukrainians that have fled their homes do not register with Ukrainian authorities or officially apply for assistance. The Russian authorities and UNHCR are reporting that 740,000 people have crossed the border since the start of the year.”
