No country will be left untouched if the war in Ukraine is not stopped, UN warns

As of June 26, UN dependencies have registered 10,631 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 4,731 dead and 5,900 woundedreported this Tuesday Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs to the Security Council of the United Nations.

In a session of the highest decision-making body on Ukraine, Rosemary DiCarlo added that these figures respond to verified incidents, clarifying that the real numbers are higher.

In addition to the deaths, there has been great devastation in recent weeks, with towns and villages razed to the ground and much arable land destroyed by bombing, he said.

“And this horrible conflict, an open source of instability in Europehas no sign of diminishing”, he warned.

The senior official specifically referred to the supposedly Russian missile attack on a shopping center in Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region, and asked for an investigation. On that occasion, 18 civilians were killed and 59 wounded.

DiCarlo warned about the dire consequences of this war not only in Ukraine and the immediate region, but far beyond the theater of war.

“The war is exacerbating the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation,” he stressed, citing the General secretary from the ONU.

He recalled that the price crises in the world food, energy and fertilizer markets are increasing, in a world that already has enough with the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

Political will is needed

“To deal with this multidimensional threat, strong political will is needed first and foremost across the international community, as well as a comprehensive approach,” he said.

Paraphrasing António Guterres once again, he added that for those on the ground, conflict brings new bloodshed and suffering every day, while for the rest of the world, war along with other crises, threatens to unleash “an unprecedented wave of hunger and miseryleaving in its wake social and economic chaos.”

“No country or community will be left untouched”, he warned.

“The cycle of death, destruction, dislocation and disturbance must stop. For the good of Ukraine, Russia and the whole world,” DiCarlo said.

Accelerated humanitarian deterioration

Regarding the humanitarian needs in Ukraine, the head of Political Affairs pointed out that increase every time further and indicated that the UN and its partners are working on a winter preparedness assistance plan.

He specified that more than 8.8 million people have received some type of humanitarian aid and protection services since the beginning of the conflict, detailing that at least 16 million require relief.

The womenin particular, face immense difficulties when it comes to health, safety and access to food, he noted.

Despite growing needs, humanitarian staff are facing multiple obstacles to aid distributionTherefore, DiCarlo urged all parties to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law.

“All appropriate measures must be taken to protect civilians and civil infrastructure”, he emphasized.

The head of Political Affairs also cited with concern the displacement crisis in Ukraine, the largest in the world at the moment with twelve million people, a quarter of the population, fleeing their homes in search of protection.

The UN specialized agencies estimate the number of internally displaced persons at 7.1 million people, and the number of refugees throughout Europe at 5.2 million.

Zelensky calls for UN investigation

After DiCarlo’s intervention, the ukrainian presidentVolodimir Zelensky addressed the Security Council via videoconference from Ukraine to speak about the damage of the war in his country.

Zelensky accused Russia of the aggression and stated that it carries out indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, committing genocide and sowing death and destruction.

The president requested that the UN carry out an investigation of the crimes committed and requested that Russia is not allowed to participate in the Security Council while “it continues with its terrorism”.

“It is imperative to establish a court to investigate everything that Russia has done to the Ukrainians and a definition of ‘state terrorism’ by the United Nations is imperative,” he said, adding that Russia must receive sanctions for disturbing the legal order.

© UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson

A destroyed building in Avdiivka, Donetsk, Ukraine (file photo).

Ukraine wants to make the Council a public one for its stagings

For his part, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, responded, first, questioning the participation of the Ukrainian president in the session, asserting that no consultations were held on the matter, thus violating the working methods of the Security Council.

“Already before, he was allowed to address this Council in an exceptional manner and the country that held the presidency at the time, the United Kingdom, guaranteed that a precedent would be set,” he pointed out and added that this body it should not become a platform to get more weapons from NATO.

Polyanskiy accused Ukraine of trying to make the Security Council public of its stagings and rejected the accusations against his country, saying that Russia has not attacked civilian targets.

He also asserted that Ukraine continues to misinform with propaganda, montages and fake news while not mentioning, for example, that it uses its own citizens as human shields or the deadly attacks it carries out in Donbas.