OCHA alerts the Security Council that more than 120 people have died in April due to attacks in Ukraine

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The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 50 attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure

May 14. () –

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned this Tuesday before the UN Security Council that more than 120 people have died in April and more than 570 have been injured by attacks within the framework of the war in Ukraine.

“More than 700 civilian casualties have been recorded throughout Ukraine in April. 129 died and 574 were injured, which represents a significant increase in the number of civilians injured for the second consecutive month,” said the head of the Finance and Partnerships division. , Lisa Doughten.

90 percent of these victims were registered in territory under Ukrainian control. During the day, at least 15 people were injured in Kharkiv in new attacks. “To date, authorities report that more than 7,000 civilians have been evacuated from the region’s border areas,” he said.

Likewise, he detailed during his speaking turn before the UN Security Council that within Russia “several civilian casualties and damage to residential buildings and other civil infrastructure” were also recorded on Sunday.

“Since March 22, the United Nations and its partners have observed five waves of attacks targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded 50 incidents in April,” he said.

Doughten has also indicated that the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv and Dnipro “are especially affected”, with 250,000 residents affected by power outages in the first city and restrictions since March in the second.

In this sense, he stressed that the impact of the attacks is “severe” on the population, since it leaves millions of homes throughout the country without electricity, without water and without the gas necessary to cook or turn on the heating, among others. .

“We are extremely concerned about what appears to be a new pattern of attacks on railway infrastructure in eastern and southern Ukraine. In April alone, OHCHR recorded 10 attacks on railway infrastructure in government territory,” he said, adding that 16 civilians have died and 59 more have been injured.

Likewise, he has expressed concern about Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure. “They risk further inflaming the war and worsening its humanitarian impact,” she added.

The intensification of hostilities, he noted, “makes the delivery of assistance even more dangerous” to the population. “Across the country, as of the end of March of this year, 3.6 million people have received some type of assistance,” he stressed.

“2 million people have received food, seeds and support for livestock, while around 580,000 people have been helped with essential household supplies and materials for emergency repairs to their homes,” he argued.

Finally, he expressed concern for the nearly 1.5 million people who need humanitarian aid in areas such as Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which “are currently under occupation by the Russian Federation.”

“All parties must allow and facilitate the rapid and unhindered passage of humanitarian aid to civilians in need. They must ensure that humanitarian personnel have freedom of movement,” Doughten concluded.