Almost two years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UN Refugee Agency has categorised the humanitarian situation in Ukraine as very serious.

The UN Refugee Agency warned on Friday that aid was slowing down.

“These airstrikes are hitting every day, especially the frontline areas and the cities.

“And every time they strike, basically they bring some destruction, which affects civilians. So, lots of people are made homeless and displaced,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, told the German Press Agency in Kiev.

The head of the UNHCR had spent a week visiting aid projects in Odessa, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kyiv.

“You start to see these fractures and the risk is, of course, that if international support diminishes in all its forms, those fractures will become greater.

“In 2022 and 2023, the work of the UNHCR and other aid organisations was well funded. But this year there was a threat of cuts,” said the Italian UN diplomat.

“The war in Ukraine has lost international attention, while the war in the Gaza Strip is dominating the headlines.

“And with three main donors Germany, the U.S. and the EU the amount of aid for Ukraine has not yet been finalised.

“The priority is really housing, repairs, everything that allows people to have a place to stay.

“Putting new windows, because windows are constantly destroyed. It’s very frustrating to have to do it all the time because there is new destruction coming,” said Mr Grandi.

He said since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the UNHCR, together with other aid organisations and Ukrainian agencies, had repaired 27,500 houses.

“Repair and reconstruction are also important to enable refugees from Germany and other countries to return.

“A database is being developed with Ukraine in which refugees can find out where they can get materials, where they can be subsidised,” added Mr Grandi.

According to him, the UN estimates that there are 3.7 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine and a further 6.3 million refugees in other countries.

“These are 10 million people that do not live in their homes. These include 1.3 million Ukrainians in Russia. This is the number reported by the government in Moscow,’’ said the high commissioner.

The UNHCR’s access to them is “very limited. It’s not zero in the sense that we have some contact with some of them.”

Contact had been made with 70,000 to 80,000 people through visits and telephone calls, he said.

 (dpa/NAN)