Ukraine

In Ukraine, the United Nations and aid agencies are urgently calling for $52 million to address the most acute, time-critical humanitarian needs before sub‑zero temperatures arrive.  Only 32 per cent of the Organization’s $162 million Humanitarian Response Plan for the country in 2019 has been funded so far.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warns today that the pace of progress to reduce new HIV infections, increase access to treatment and end AIDS-related deaths is slowing down.  In 2018, for the first time, the global resources available for the AIDS response fell significantly by nearly $1 billion.

The United Nations hopes that after Parliamentary elections and the formation of a new Government in Ukraine, recent encouraging statements by its new President, Voldodymyr Zelensky, will be followed by concrete actions to bring a positive dynamic to implement the Minsk Protocol agreements, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs told the Security Council today.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that the number of attacks on schools in eastern Ukraine increased four-fold during the first four months of 2019, versus the same period in 2018, with schools attacked 12 times between January and April.

The United Nations refugee agency said today it is deeply concerned about the fate of at least 21 Venezuelans missing after their boat sank yesterday morning on the way to Trinidad and Tobago.  It was carrying at least 25 people, and the Trinidad and Tobago authorities said four were rescued.

Amid flaring tensions in eastern Ukraine, delegates in the Security Council today urged all parties to the conflict — now in its fifth year — to avoid unilateral actions that could exacerbate tensions, and to uphold their commitments, under the Minsk Protocol agreements to bring peace to the region’s 3.5 million beleaguered people in need of humanitarian assistance.

A measles and rubella vaccination campaign in Yemen led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has now reached nearly 12 million children, including in high-risk areas, marginalized communities and camps for internally displaced people.

There is no alternative to a peaceful settlement of the five-year conflict in Ukraine, with deployment of a United Nations-mandated peacekeeping operation there being an effective tool to bring peace, speakers told the General Assembly today.

The United Nations refugee agency says it is seeing a surge in refugee arrivals from South Sudan into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  In the past few days, an estimated 5,000 refugees have arrived in several border villages near the town of Ingbokolo in north-eastern Ituri Province, according to local village chiefs.