Ensuring the protection of civilians and expanding humanitarian access to Non-Government Controlled Areas to assist the population in need are our priorities
picture: © F. Bucciarelli for INTERSOS
In the early days, since the start of the war in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 INTERSOS has deployed its mobile teams and launched an emergency operation on the border with Poland and Moldova and started to provide immediate assistance to the enormous flow of refugees and, since the beginning of March, we have started to provide humanitarian assistance inside Ukraine. Starting from an initial intervention in Lviv, in the western area of the country, our intervention has progressively moved towards the east, closer to the front line, where the need for assistance is greater. Presently, the main operational bases of INTERSOS are located in the cities of Vynnitsia, Odesa, Poltava, and Dnipro, from which we also operate in the regions (oblast’) of Kharkiv, Zaporizka, Donetsk, and Mikolaiv.
Over the past 12 months, 100.000 people were assisted by INTERSOS in Ukraine, including 75.000 reached with protection activities including prevention, mitigation, or rapid response to needs related to specific vulnerabilities. About 10.000 people were assisted through the distribution of winter clothes, blankets, hygiene kits, stoves, firewood, and other non-food items. 3,000 medical visits were conducted thanks to the intervention of mobile medical teams in remote areas not covered by the official health system, while 49 health facilities were supported through the supply of medicines, equipment, and kits to be able to continue their activities.
All our activities are based on humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law and are in line with our mandate to safeguard the life and dignity of the civilian population affected by the conflict. The Ukraine crisis has forced the humanitarian system to rapidly expand and reorganize its presence to guarantee aid and protection to the population, starting with the most vulnerable communities. A year later, according to United Nations data, there are 17.7 million people in need of humanitarian aid, with 5.4 million internally displaced persons and 8 million refugees abroad.
Ensuring the protection of civilians, expanding humanitarian access to Non-Government Controlled Areas to assist the population in need there, increasing localization, and the search for durable solutions are the continuing priorities jointly indicated by the humanitarian organizations active in the country. “The situation in the country is very complex. An active conflict is ongoing and security is highly volatile”, Alda Cappelletti, INTERSOS’ Director of Programmes underlines as she is visiting Ukraine in February 2023, “The closer humanitarian actors go to the frontline the hardest it is for logistics, movements, and, therefore, access to people in need”.