UKRAINE/HUMANITARIAN
Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that the situation in the eastern and north-eastern part of Ukraine remains volatile with reports from UN teams and open sources of heavy fighting, including in and around Mariupol, Chuhuiv, Kharkiv, Izyum, Chernihiv, Sumy and Sievierodonetsk.
In northern Ukraine, open sources and UN teams are also reporting increasingly violent clashes on the outskirts of Kyiv, including Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, and that civilians who are trapped in some of those areas lack access to supplies and basic services.
We welcome public communications by the two sides regarding their intention to facilitate safe passage for civilians out of conflict areas including Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy.
Our humanitarian colleagues stress it is critical that civilians, whether they choose to stay or choose to leave are protected, and if they leave, it is in the direction of their choosing.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) today said that more than 2 million Ukrainians have now crossed international borders out of Ukraine. According to the UN Human Rights Office, between 24 February and 7 March at the end of the day, 1,335 civilian casualties were recorded, which includes 474 people killed. As mentioned earlier, the Office notes it is difficult to verify the actual number of deaths and injuries.
Humanitarian organizations are scaling up response to impacted people in the east and the west of the country, as security allows.
In the east, the International Committee of the Red Cross has provided more than 200,000 medical items to mobile clinics and the NGO M矇decins Sans Fronti癡res has delivered about 120 cubic meters of medical supplies to Ukraine.
In the west, focus is primarily on support to internally displaced people. UNHCR is providing thermal blankets and mattresses for 6,000 people, complementing an earlier delivery of 18,500 high thermal blankets by the International Organization for Migration to support displaced people in Lviv.
A Common Humanitarian Operations Coordination Centre has been established in Rzeszow in Poland, which will serve as a common space for all humanitarian organizations responding to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.
MOLDOVA
Our UN team in neighbouring Moldova says 250,000 refugees have crossed the Ukrainian border in less than two weeks.
More than 100,000 refugees remain in Moldova, and the UN Refugee Agency is helping local authorities assist these men, women and children. Nearly 70 per cent of those refugees, however, are women and girls, and nearly half of them are children.
UKRAINE/SECURITY COUNCIL
Yesterday afternoon, the Security Council held a meeting on Ukraine. Briefing Council Members were the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, and the new head of the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Catherine Russell.
Mr. Griffiths noted that we already had enough on our hands, with many other unnecessary and unwanted conflicts leaving misery in their wake. We had no need for a further war, he stressed.
Meanwhile, Ms. Russell said that she had just returned from the Romania-Ukraine border, where she met with mothers and children who had to flee their homes at a moments notice.
She said that UNICEF and our partners are working 24 hours a day to meet rapidly escalating humanitarian needs in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries.
UKRAINE/STAFF
Ive been getting quite a lot of questions following a news report and I just wanted to correct the mistaken impression that UN staff were told to avoid using certain words to describe the situation in Ukraine.
It is simply not the case that there was some sort of global instructions to all UN staff not to use words like war or invasion to describe the situation. As proof, you will all have seen the that Rosemary DiCarlo issued yesterday which said the following: Nearly two weeks on, it is painfully clear that those suffering the most after Russia's invasion of #Ukraine are civilians - killed, wounded, displaced. This war is senseless. We are ready to support all good-faith efforts at negotiation to end the bloodshed.
Similarly, Martin Griffiths and the Secretary-General have used a wide range of words in their statements and remarks to the press to describe what has been going on and those were all very public for all to see.
At the same time, I do want to say there was an email that went out to global staff to remind staff that they are international civil servants and to uphold the responsibilities that position entails. Accordingly, staff were asked to frame any communications on Ukraine as well as any other political matters in a manner that is consistent with the position of the Organization and statements of the Secretary-General. This applies not only to the ongoing situation in Ukraine, but other situations around the world. But there were no instructions in that global message to staff not to use certain words and its the kind of message that we regularly send out to staff when there is a global event or a national event that has a lot of attention. UN staff, like journalists, are all very passionate, but we all work for an Organization and have to uphold the rules and regulations of the Organization in our role as international civil servants.
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY
Today, as you all know, is International Womens Day. This morning, the Secretary-General took part in the UN virtual observance for the Day. In his video message, he said that the pandemic has kept girls and women out of schools and workplaces. They face rising poverty and rising violence, they do the vast majority of the worlds unpaid but essential care work, and theyre targets of violence and abuse, just because of their gender.
This year the theme focuses on womens work on climate change. It reminds us that women bear the brunt of climate changes impacts and environmental degradation, Mr. Guterres said.
We need more women environment ministers, business leaders, presidents and prime ministers.
They can push countries to address the climate crisis, develop green jobs and build a more just and sustainable world.
We cannot emerge from the pandemic with the clock spinning backwards on gender equality.
We need to turn the clock forward on womens rights, he said.
SECURITY COUNCIL
Pegged to International Womens Day, this morning, the Executive Director of UN Women, Sima Bahous, spoke to the Security Council on the topic of Women, Peace and Security. She said it is clear that we need another model of leadership on peace and security issues, one that features womens inclusion in economic recovery as an essential element in our pursuit of peace.
Ms. Bahous emphasized that study after study shows investing in women's economic empowerment yields enormous dividends for both peace and prosperity, and that countries where women are economically marginalized and shut out of the workforce are much more likely to go to war.
She added that UN Women will work with Council members to strengthen this approach.
MALI
Turning to Mali, the Secretary-General has condemned yesterdays attack perpetrated yesterday against a logistics convoy of our colleagues at the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali. The attack took place in the region of Mopti in central Mali. Two Egyptian peacekeepers were killed and four other were seriously injured.
The injured peacekeepers were transported to a Mission hospital in S矇var矇, where they are currently receiving treatment.
The Secretary-General reiterated our continued support and solidarity with the people and Government of Mali, including through enhancing the capacity of the UN Mission to protect civilians in the center of Mali, as well as supporting a Government-led strategy to stabilize that region.
The full statement is online.
COSTA RICA
The Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, is in Costa Rica, where she commemorated International Women's Day with girls at the historic Escuela de Se簽oritas, where the fight for women rights started 99 years ago. She reminded them that women and girls will achieve their dreams and rights by fighting today and tomorrow and engaging boys and men along the way. She also visited an animal sanctuary to see first-hand Costa Ricas leadership in nature-based solutions that protect bio-diversity and raise the need to combat illegal animal trade and trafficking.
Yesterday, she attended the Sustainable Development Forum in Costa Rica, where she emphasized the importance of leadership by Latin America and the Caribbean to put the world back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. She also met the President of Costa Rica, Government officials from the region and UN Resident Coordinators on ways to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and strengthen UN support in this regard.
Before departing, she will also chair a meeting with all regional directors of the UN agencies in the region to review joint priorities to support the countries in the region this year.
HORN OF AFRICA/DROUGHT
On the drought in the Horn of Africa, which we have been talking to you about for quite some time, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that in Ethiopia, some 175,000 people have now been displaced from their homes due to the drought, and more than 1.5 million cows and other livestock are estimated to have died due to lack of food and water.
We and our partners are scaling up assistance to people affected by the drought and have reached more than 2.7 million people with food assistance.
In February, more than 120 metric tonnes of medicine and other supplies have been dispatched to the drought-affected areas and therapeutic food to treat malnourished children is being distributed.
Despite support from donors and others, additional funding is urgently needed since needs are expected to further increase.
The drought is also severely affecting neighbouring Somalia, where 4.5 million people are affected and 670,000 men, women and children have been uprooted from their homes.
In some of the worst affected areas, water prices have spiked up to 72 per cent since November of last year.
More than 1.4 million children which is nearly half of the children under 5 are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition due to the continuing drought.
The Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia, which seeks nearly $1.5 billion to help 5.5 million of the most vulnerable Somalis, is only 3.3 per cent funded.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, will virtually brief Member States tomorrow on the impact of the drought in the Horn of Africa. You can follow that meeting on UN Webtv.
MIDDLE EAST
Lastly, Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said today he was deeply concerned by the deteriorating security situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This past week, daily violence has claimed the lives of six Palestinians, including one child, and 26 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been injured.
Mr. Wennesland said that every death is tragic, and every injury is lamentable, but the loss or injury of a child is particularly devastating. He reiterated that children must never be the target of violence or put in harms way.
In this volatile situation, he said, all concerned must refrain from actions and provocations that fuel tensions and exercise maximum restraint. There can be no justification for violence or terror, which must be condemned by all. Israeli security forces must use lethal force only when strictly unavoidable to protect life.
He called on political, religious and community leaders to reject violence and speak up against those who try to inflame the situation.
