Ukraine

The Head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) expressed concern about recent actions against Serbia-funded institutions there. UNMIK notes that the actions resulted in the closure of several institutions, including post offices, provisional institutions’ buildings and social welfare centres.

The Russian Federation’s daily attacks on Ukraine bring death and terror to the local population, while 36 per cent of the country’s population will require humanitarian assistance in 2025, the Security Council heard today, even as delegates traded accusations about the competing geopolitical agendas at stake.

In Haiti, over 1 million people are now internally displaced, three times more than a year ago, with displacement nearly doubling in the capital Port-au-Prince, the International Organization for Migration reports. In 2025, the UN and its partners will need $900 million to support 4 million people across the country.

The United Nations Children’s Fund today released a report warning that the world is facing a new, intensifying era of crisis for children, with those impacted by conflict nearly doubling to almost 19 per cent today from around 10 per cent in the 1990s.

In Central and Southern Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that humanitarian partners had exhausted all supplies at their warehouses, at a time when Israeli authorities continue to deny most requests to bring food assistance from the Erez West crossing to areas south of Wadi Gaza.

In Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that, according to authorities and partners, hostilities in the first week of January resulted in hundreds of casualties. Over the past three days, homes, gas facilities and electricity infrastructure have been damaged in front-line regions.

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, today allocated $6 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to address the humanitarian needs of refugees fleeing conflict in Sudan to Egypt, in support of the ongoing response there, which has become host to some 1.2 million Sudanese refugees since last April.

Meeting again today to discuss Western arms supplies to Ukraine, the Security Council heard that civilians there continue to be killed and injured by a panoply of deadly munitions, while the organ’s members alternately urged a diplomatic end to the violence and condemned Moscow’s initial — and continued — aggression.

In Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that UN-led aid missions to the North Gaza governorate continue to be overwhelmingly denied, especially those seeking to reach besieged areas in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and parts of Jabalya.

Updating the Security Council today on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, a senior United Nations official stressed that repeated attacks on that country’s energy infrastructure by the Russian Federation — as well as the continued inability to reach civilians living in occupied regions — could have dire consequences in the third winter of this “intolerable war”.