Ukraine internal displacement nears 1 million as fighting escalates in Donetsk region
Ukraine puts the number of registered IDPs at 980,000. Also, 600,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum or other forms of legal stay in neighbouring countries.
KYIV, Ukraine, February 6 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency reported on Friday that fighting in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region is creating new displacement and pushing the number of registered internally displaced people (IDP) close to the 1 million mark.
Ukraine's Ministry of Social Policy puts the number of registered IDPs countrywide at 980,000 - a figure that is expected to rise as more newly uprooted people are being registered. In addition, some 600,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum or other forms of legal stay in neighbouring countries, particularly the Russian Federation, but also Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Romania, since February 2014.
Spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva that UNHCR teams were reporting that heavy fighting in the Donetsk region over the last two weeks has resulted in massive destruction of buildings and infrastructure and in the collapse of basic services.
"Local authorities have begun to evacuate people from conflict areas, but many are still trapped by the fighting, including in basements and buildings under constant bombardment. The evacuations are being organized by the government helped by local volunteers," he said.
More than 2,800 civilians, including about 700 children and 60 people living with disability, have been evacuated from the towns of Debaltseve, Avdiivka and Svitlodar, which have seen fierce combat. Several incidents of shelling of buses carrying the evacuees have been reported.
The Ukrainian government has said it is concerned that areas close to the frontline, which are also under heavy shelling, will not be able to accommodate the new arrivals. Therefore, people will have to be moved further away to central, southern and western parts of the country.
Evacuees are being taken to government-controlled towns to the north of Donetsk such as Slovyansk, Sviatohirsk, Kramatorsk and Grodivka, as well as to the nearby Kharkiv region. They are being transported in cars and buses and, in the case of the most vulnerable, by train. Some evacuees are temporarily accommodated in train carriages at the railway station in Slovyansk, awaiting onwards transportation.
Apart from the organized evacuations, civilians continue to flee the conflict areas by their own means, facing numerous dangers along the way. "As more homes and other civilian infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, UNHCR expects more people to be displaced to areas in central, southern and western Ukraine under the control of the Ukrainian government, but also to non-government controlled areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Edwards said.
Our teams on the ground report that many of the recently displaced are arriving with very few belongings and without proper winter clothes. To address the most urgent needs, UNHCR, through local NGO networks, has started to distribute relief items in northern areas of the Donetsk region, the main place of arrival of IDPs from the conflict areas. Some 2,000 of the most vulnerable new arrivals received blankets, sleeping bags, bed linen, warm clothes and jerry cans.
Additionally, some 1,600 newly arrived IDPs from Debaltsevo and Vuhlehirsk have been assisted by UNHCR partners in conflict-affected areas which are not controlled by the government.
The lack of access to public services previously provided by the central authorities has drastically worsened the plight of the civilian population in areas not under government control. This has been further aggravated by restrictions to the movement of people and goods. The surge in fighting has further limited the supply of urgently needed goods in the conflict areas.
"UNHCR maintains its call on all parties to the conflict to refrain from any actions that might endanger the life of civilians and to adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law," Edwards stressed.
By Nina Sorokopud in Kyiv, Ukraine
Related news and stories
Ukraine's refugees find long-term support in Europe's host countries
Women-run businesses in Afghanistan dealt a blow by deepening restrictions
After conflict, the displaced of Central African Republic dream of going home
Across borders, South Sudan's displaced call for peace
Six faces of the forcibly displaced in Ukraine
UNHCR: Funding gap of US$295m in Yemen jeopardizes life-saving humanitarian aid
Your search for « donetsk » matched 110 results. Displaying page 7 of 13 pages.
-
Evaluation of the Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items Cluster in the Ukraine
Feb 2016 ... ... a presence Sievierodonetsk, Dniepropetrovsk, Donetsk and Kharkiv Dec Formal activation of the ... field offices in Sloviansk, Sievierodonetsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Mariupol, and Dniepropetrovsk. ...... -
Ukrainian summer camp provides respite from trauma of displacement
7 Oct 2014 ... They had made a good life for themselves, Alexandr as an economist, Viktoria as an accountant in Donetsk. The conflict drove them out, not only the shelling but also the lack of drugs in the ...... -
UNHCR warns of rising needs in Ukraine and neighbouring countries, calls for cessation of hostilities
18 Mar 2022 ... The humanitarian needs in eastern Ukraine are becoming even more urgent. More than 200,000 people are now without access to water across several localities in Donetsk oblast while the constant ...... -
A month since the start of the war, almost a quarter of Ukraine's population are displaced
25 Mar 2022 ... It is the same for colleagues at UNHCR in Ukraine, who now work out of newly established offices in Dnipro and Vinnytsia, Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi and Lviv, as well as in Donetsk and Luhansk ...... -
UNHCR redoubles its aid inside Ukraine and the region
8 Apr 2022 ... UNHCR also provides protection services closer to conflict hotspots, at first points of arrival. UNHCR’s partners are still present with a significant protection capacity in Donetsk and Luhansk, ...... -
Six faces of the forcibly displaced in Ukraine
13 Mar 2023 ... ... window of his house in Sloviansk, in Donetsk. “I broke my hip and suffered a stroke,” he says. ... Dnipro, who joined UNHCR in April 2022 after being forced from her home by the fighting in Donetsk. ...... -
Generosity of Ukrainians helps displaced face winter cold
11 Feb 2015 ... ... It's in the middle of a forest near the small eastern town of Svyatogorsk. It was never intended as winter accommodation. Although he was a civil engineer back home in Donetsk - the other epicentre of ...... -
Thousands in eastern Ukraine lose access to pensions
14 Jun 2017 ... Some have lost their payments because of mistakes. Tetiana Kovalenko, 83, had to leave the city of Donetsk after her house was bombed. Since 2015, she has lived in government-controlled Myrnograd and ...... -
Statement to European Parliament on the Ukraine refugee situation and the EU's response
4 Apr 2022 ... Within Ukraine, we have adapted our operational presence, relocating offices and supplies to the western and central parts of the country while maintaining a footprint in Kyiv as well as in Donetsk ......