The lack of food, light and heating condemns millions of people to exodus, famine and serious health crises
Darkness, cold and… hunger. Wars do not only kill with shots, cannon shots or bombardments. They do it with other weapons too. The same thing happens in all wars, regardless of the century in which they take place, and the main victims are always the weakest: civilians. And among them especially the elderly and children.
The confrontation in Ukraine does not escape a dynamic that is further exacerbated with the arrival of winter and low temperatures. The old General Winter from World War II still maintains command of him. There are always many who are forced to leave their homes and take refuge in filthy basements, in caves… where comforts are incompatible with the secrecy required by the need to hide from the enemy. It has also happened during the Russian invasion.
In the Ukraine, even those who have been lucky enough to be able to stay at home, far from the front lines, are victims of the evils of war. The bombardments of the infantry, the drones or the Kremlin aviation on the infrastructures force them to spend the harsh Ukrainian winter without light or heating, and, in the case of millions of citizens, also to an exodus towards more benevolent areas that allow them to cover your basic needs.
For all these reasons, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a warning about the danger faced by Ukrainians due to the arrival of cold weather and the destruction by Moscow of key energy infrastructures. The lives of up to three million people are in danger due to the “deadly effects on the health system and on people’s health,” according to Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe. This human contingent could be forced to leave their homes in search of safety and warmth. “They will have to face health challenges, including respiratory infections such as Covid-19, pneumonia, the flu…”, warns Kluge. In addition, there will be a “serious risk of diphtheria and measles for an under-vaccinated population.”
The WHO announced on Monday that this winter will “endanger” the lives of millions of people in Ukraine due to the energy crisis and the risk of viral infections. The country is facing a thermal and “survival” crisis, according to Kluge, who has detailed that so far there have been 703 attacks on health centers.
“This is a violation of international humanitarian law and the rules of war,” he asserted, adding that the attacks on health and energy infrastructure mean hundreds of hospitals and health care facilities are no longer fully operational and lack fuel, water and electricity to meet basic needs. “Maternity wards need incubators. Blood banks need refrigerators. Intensive care beds need fans. And they all require energy,” she added.
minus twenty degrees
In this sense, the WHO has highlighted that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians throughout the country, including private homes, schools and hospitals, do not have a gas supply, essential not only for cooking but also for heating. And it is that up to ten million people, a quarter of the population of Ukraine, do not have electricity, a worrying fact, according to the organization, since temperatures are forecast to plummet to minus twenty degrees Celsius in some parts of the territory.
For those who cannot find ways to move to more benevolent parts of the country, in addition to the cold, the threat will be hunger. Studies indicate that up to 40% of the population living in the vicinity of the fronts does not have enough food. There are more than two million who, victims of the war earthquake, need humanitarian aid in a country where poverty rates have skyrocketed. The invasion has skyrocketed need ratios from 2% to 25%, according to World Bank forecasts for the end of this year. This figure can reach 55% by the end of 2023, explained Arup Banerji, director in Eastern Europe of PMA to the Reuters agency.
One in three Ukrainians suffers from nutritional insecurity, according to the World Food Program (WFP), while the shopping basket has risen by 35% in the country, as revealed by the director of that UN agency in Ukraine, Matthew Hollingworth.
In eastern and southern Ukraine there are about 2.5 million people living near the combat regions. Many are citizens who have not been able to escape to safer areas due to economic problems or lack of family ties. This is, above all, the case of older people alone or disabled, always oblivious to mobile phones and internet connection.
Mixed all these factors, the director of the WFP paints a black picture between now and spring. In addition to the lack of resources of a significant part of the population that survives near the front, there are now millions of victims of attacks on energy infrastructure carried out by the Russians in recent weeks. The geographic scope of the vulnerability has been extended.
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