Eight million people in Ukraine have been forced to move within the country, The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said this Tuesday in the presentation of updated data on the impact of the war on the population.
That figure represents “24% more compared to the first internal displacement figures published on March 16,” said the agency, which has carried out a new evaluation on the ground between April 17 and May 3.
(Also read: Is Vladimir Putin a psychopath? This was said by the neuroscientist who analyzed him)
IOM also found in a series of surveys that two-thirds of the displaced consider that the best way to help them is through cash assistance to buy food and medicine, compared to 49% who preferred this mode of help to the start of the war.
Shelter is the second most important need, with 27% of the displaced people interviewed saying that their homes had been destroyed or damaged, while one in ten people asked for materials and tools to repair their homes.
The data of the IOM also indicate that 2.7 million people have returned to their homes in Ukraine, almost all of whom returned from other areas within their own region or from other regions of Ukraine, indicating that the number of returning refugees in other countries is low.
In this sense, the mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, stated that “almost two thirds” of the 3.5 million inhabitants of kyiv returned to the Ukrainian capital, which was practically deserted at the beginning of the Russian invasion.
(You may be interested: Russia and Ukraine experience an unusual Victory Day after invasion)
“Before the war there were 3.5 million people in kyiv, about two-thirds of them came back,” Klitschko said.
Although there is a curfew, roadblocks “can indeed return if these circumstances do not scare them,” said the official, who until now had asked the inhabitants of the capital who fled to be patient before returning.
Klitschko stressed that he could not ban Kievans from returning to the capital, but urged caution.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the number of Ukrainian refugees registered since the war began, on February 24, is 5.92 millionthe vast majority in neighboring countries.
Bombing continues in Odessa
Meanwhile, Russia stepped up its offensive in eastern Ukraine and shelled the city of Odessa in the south. At least one person died and five others were injured in the attacks launched by the Russian Army against the coastal city of Odessa, in southern Ukraine, on the shores of the Black Sea, the Southern Ukrainian Operational Command reported on its page on Tuesday. From Facebook.
The Russians “they returned (tonight) to attack Odessa with the use of planes. Seven missiles were fired at the city“, explained the military command.
(Also: In photos: Russian ambassador to Poland was attacked with red paint on his face)
On Monday afternoon, three Russian Kinzhal-type missiles were fired from a Tu-22 strategic aircraft in the Odessa region, in an attack in which two people were injured and at least five buildings that are part of the tourist infrastructure were destroyed. from this city.
The Ukrainian military made it clear in its message that they believe that the “enemy’s missile reserves are obviously running out, since old Soviet models with unsuccessful guidance are being used, given their age.”
In his opinion, the invading army, “in its search for strategic installations, uses obsolete missiles” that do not hit the intended targets, which is why they are especially dangerous for the population.
The last missiles fell, according to sources, in a shopping center and a consumer goods warehouseassured the Operational Command of the Ukrainian South.
These latest attacks have caused several fires in the city that are trying to be extinguished.
The Russians have focused their bombing in recent days on southeastern Ukraine, to establish a corridor linking the pro-Russian eastern region of Donbas with the Crimean peninsula, which they have occupied since 2014.
However, some operations are also taking place in the city of Odessa, close to Crimea, which until now had not been seriously attacked, and which is close to the border with Moldova and about 200 kilometers from the border with Romania.
(You can read: UN Human Rights Council will have an urgent meeting for Ukraine)
The situation in Mariupol
In the city of Mariupol, attacks against the Azovstal plant also continue and several wounded soldiers remain there.
“More than a thousand” Ukrainian soldiers, including “hundreds of wounded”, remain in the Azovstal steelworks, besieged by Russian troops in the city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Tuesday. .
After the evacuation of all civilians last week with the help of the UN, “more than a thousand” soldiers, including “hundreds of wounded” remain entrenched in the underground galleries of this huge industrial complex, Vereshchuk said in a telephone interview.
“There are seriously injured people who need an urgent evacuation,” added the official, explaining that the situation “deteriorates every day” in the steelworks, the last stronghold of resistance of the Ukrainian forces against the Russian army in Mariupol, a city devastated by the bombings, located on the shores of the Sea of Azov.
The Ukrainian official denied the information given by regional officials, who stated that there were still civilians in the factory. “It’s not true,” she settled.
The head of the Azov battalion, a unit defending the steelworks, “officially declared” to government officials and a UN representative that “there is no civilian, no woman, child or elderly person in Azovstal,” he added.
At this moment, the Ukrainian authorities are “working” on finding a way to evacuate the wounded, medical personnel and military chaplains, and are waiting for the help of international organizations and Turkey for this.
(Also: Bombings in Odessa during the visit of the President of the European Council)
In terms of the entire country, what I can say is that there are thousands more (civilian dead) than we have been able to verify so far.
“Medical personnel want to go out with the wounded, because they have to be accompanied” if a “humanitarian corridor” opens up in the steel mill, he said.
According to calculations by the Ukrainian authorities, such an operation “will take at least a week” given the number of wounded who have to be carried on stretchers, Vereshchuk said.
The Ukrainian official confirmed that Turkey “worked closely” with them in this operation and did not rule out that the evacuation could be done by sea, thanks to a ship chartered by Ankara and equipped with medical infrastructure.
Ukraine wants above all to ensure that Russia “does not start shooting” during the evacuation, according to Vereshchuk. “Written guarantees are needed and that’s what we’re trying to get,” he added.
In Mariupol, the United Nations fears that thousands of civilians have been killed by attacks by Russian troops and they point out that they will be able to verify it when an observer mission can access the city, which has suffered enormous destruction.
The UN Human Rights Office has confirmed the death of nearly 3,400 civilians since the war began on February 24, “but the real figures are much higher,” said the chief of the observers, Matilda Bogner, in a press conference in Geneva.
“The big black hole is Mariupol, where it is difficult to corroborate the information,” said Bogner, who added: “In terms of the entire country, what I can say is that there are thousands more (civilian dead) than we have been able to verify so far.“.
In tours of fourteen locations in the kyiv and Chernigov regions, the UN observers collected information on the death of more than three hundred men, women and children, particularly in areas north of the capital occupied by Russian troops until the end of March.
In these places, the mission of the UN Human Rights Office, led by High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, has obtained evidence of murders, summary executions, torture and sexual violence.
(Keep reading: Ukraine will receive a response on its accession to the European Union in June)
The UN meeting
On the other hand, the UN Human Rights Council will organize on Thursday, at the request of kyiv and with the support of dozens of countries, an extraordinary session on “the deterioration of the human rights situation in Ukraine” as a result of the Russian invasion.
On the same day, the UN Security Council is due to meet for the 16th time since the start of the war at the request of France and Mexico following the bombing of a school in eastern Ukraine that killed 60 civilians, according to kyiv.
But Russia will not participate in the special session of the UN Human Rights Council on “the deterioration of the human rights situation in
Ukraine,” the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zajárova, announced on Tuesday.
“The Russian delegation is not going to legitimize with its presence this political show organized in the form of an extraordinary sessionZakharova said in a statement.
The official regretted that her country’s arguments about “the true objectives” of the special military operation and the true situation on the ground are totally ignored. “It is clear that they will not be heard this time either,” Zakharova added.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING*
*With information from EFE and AFP
More news
Moscow admits Western aid has delayed its Ukraine offensive
Kirill: the Orthodox patriarch who blesses Putin’s missiles
Ukraine: UN counts 5.7 million war refugees
#War #Ukraine #leaves #million #internally #displaced