Category: Europe

Six weeks ago, life was easy for Yuliia, her husband Valerii, and their small son Artemko. They had just moved into a new apartment in a quiet, green part of Bucha. She had a job as a hairdresser and loved nothing more than when a client left her salon looking beautiful and confident. Everything changed one awful morning at the… Read More

Citing the State Border Guard Service, UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that 30,000 people are crossing back into Ukraine every day. “The situation for people living with #HIV in Ukraine is desperate. We’re trying to deliver medicines, food & other assistance to people in need but the work is dangerous & volunteer drivers are putting their lives at risk”… Read More

Speaking from Kabul, at the end of a four-day visit to Afghanistan, Mr. Grandi said that he had met families “who do not know what they will eat for their next meal”. Acknowledging that the world is “rightfully preoccupied with the war in Ukraine,” he pleaded for help with another humanitarian crisis. Today, in Kandahar and Jalalabad, I visited projects… Read More

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) aims to counter the devastation that’s been caused by the shelling of cities and early projections that two decades of economic progress could be lost, if the war continues. The announcement came as The World Bank issued an alert that Ukraine’s economy is set to shrink by 45 per cent this year, because of the… Read More

Mr. Guterres said the strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, which killed and injured scores of civilians waiting to be evacuated, “including many women, children and elderly”, was “completely unacceptable.”  The statement issued by his Spokesperson went on to remind “all parties of their obligations under international law to protect civilians, and of the urgency to agree… Read More

The resolution received a two-thirds majority of those voting, minus abstentions, in the 193-member Assembly, with 93 nations voting in favour and 24 against.   Fifty-eight abstained from the process.  Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Vietnam, were among those who voted against.  Those abstaining, included India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar,… Read More

Martin Griffiths was in Bucha and in Irpin, both located outside the capital, Kyiv, accompanied by the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Olha Stefanishyna.  Mass graves and destruction  The relief chief described the visit as “horrifying”, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, speaking during his daily briefing in New York.  “He saw a mass grave with bodies wrapped in plastic, dozens of… Read More

The siege began after Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in the wake of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.  Bosnian Serbs largely opposed independence, while the other two large ethnic groups, Muslim Bosniaks and Croats, favoured the split from Belgrade.  Bosnian Serb troops started bombarding the capital city in April 1992, a sustained assault which lasted for nearly four years. … Read More

Infrastructure damage from shelling has left thousands of people in residential buildings across eastern Ukraine without electricity or gas for cooking and heating homes, or adequate access to clean water, which has been cut since the end of March. While millions of people have fled #Ukraine, some of the most vulnerable people remain there. While safety is their first concern,… Read More

“We are dealing with a State that is turning the veto of the United Nations Security Council into the right to die”, President Zelynskyy warned.  If it continues, countries will rely not on international law or global institutions to ensure security, but rather, on the power of their own arms. I regret the divisions that have prevented the Security Council from… Read More