In 2023, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will allocate one billion one hundred million dollars to help refugees and displaced persons in Ukraine. The magnitude of this sum is indicative of the scale of the crisis and the massive population displacements resulting from Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Victoria Kupchynetska spoke with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Karolina Billing.
Victoria Kupchynetskaya: The Office for Refugees deals with crises in countries around the world. Compared to others, how big is the crisis in Ukraine?
Carolina Billing: According to our estimates, about 18 million Ukrainians this year will need humanitarian assistance. And their number continues to grow, as the war continues. When you look at these numbers and how quickly ordinary people who have managed their lives without help have turned into 18 million people in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, the scale of the involuntary displacement of people is unbelievable. .
Victoria Kupchynetskaya: What are the latest statistics on the number of displaced people and refugees as a result of this war?
Caroline Billing: I want to start with the statistics before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine . Then about a million Ukrainians became internally displaced persons in Ukraine, they came from Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, and from the eastern regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, where the military conflict continued. But when the full-scale invasion began, a quarter, a third of the country’s population was forced from their homes in just a few weeks.
And we at UNHCR have also participated in these population movements. UNHCR had the most staff in Mariupol, Slaviansk and Severodonetsk, in areas now under temporary Russian military control or on the front lines. We also had employees in Kiev. And we also had to leave these areas with millions of Ukrainians who tried to flee to the west of the country. I personally only returned to Kiev in April 2022.
Today in Ukraine, the number of internally displaced people, people who have been forced to flee and leave their homes, is around 5 million people. This is a general estimate, and this figure changes every day because every day people have to flee their homes because they are attacked. In the east, in the regions of Kharkiv and Dnepropetrovsk, there are many IDPs, and there are many in the Kyiv region.
There are now approximately 6 million 300 thousand Ukrainian refugees outside the borders of Ukraine who have sought asylum in other countries. There are many in Poland, Moldova, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany and a few outside Europe.
Victoria Kupchynetskaya: What do these people need and how does UNHCR help them?
Carolina Billing: We provide them with cash assistance for whatever they need. We help repair houses destroyed by bombing, or alternatively we provide prefabricated blockhouses for those whose houses have been completely destroyed.
Also, many people – I would say the whole population – need socio-psychological support. Even if you live Not near the front line, not east of the line in the south, but in Kiev, for example, as I live in Kiev, only in May this year, almost every day Kiev has been subjected to missile strikes and drone attacks. We wake up at 2 a.m., at 3 a.m. to the sound of sirens, to the sound of explosions produced by air defense systems. When it goes on day after day for a long time, it is a huge stress for a person.
Viktoria Kupchynetskaya: Do you remember stories of people who particularly struck you, which you remember often?
Carolina Billing: A story now comes to mind – Raisa, 88, I met her a few weeks ago in Zaporizhzhia, in an area close to the front line. She lived in an apartment in the center of the city of Zaporizhzhia, which Russian troops fired rockets at in early March this year. She woke up in the middle of the night as rescuers tried to pull her out of the rubble. The missile hit his apartment. She survived, but now lives in a community center in Zaporizhzhia. She said to me: “These rescuers, they are my angels, they saved my life. But I had nothing left except for these clothes I was wearing. All my belongings were destroyed as well as my apartment. It is a tragic situation. She is 88 years old! She must rest, live in peace and enjoy her advanced years…
I see that the Ukrainian government is extremely concerned about the situation of the citizens of the country. And for 16 months, she has been working day and night to help people, to save them, to support them, to show them that they are not alone, to help them find where to live, what to eat… Such a strong reaction from the government Ukrainian is quite unique.
Victoria Kupchinetskaya: What kind of help can you provide to people living in the territories occupied by Russian troops?
Carolina Billing: From the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, the United Nations asked Russia to give them access to these people. But these requests have not yet been accepted. Now we have sent a new request: to provide access to people in the flood zone of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region, so that we can help them. But our request has not yet been accepted. We are very concerned about this, because the people who live in this territory, we believe, are in a very difficult situation.
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