In view of the humanitarian emergency in Ukraine, the director of the United Nations children’s fund Unicef, Catherine Russell, is appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his army’s attacks immediately. «You must stop this war! He’s terrible. Its effects on children are unacceptable and abhorrent,” Russell told the DPA news agency. The American has been in office since February. The local people and the fleeing women and children are “completely innocent” and have nothing to do with the conflict, Russell said. “You didn’t deserve this.”
Russell expressed grave concern regarding developments in Ukraine, where Russian attacks continued three weeks following the war began on February 24. 148 Unicef employees are still in the country to provide people with essentials, Russell reported.
According to the aid organization, it has set up 26 contact points, so-called “Blue Dots”, along the escape routes to provide care for refugees and to mediate with bureaucratic hurdles. It’s also regarding registering people, Russell explained. The aid organization also makes sure that there is no human trafficking or children being taken away by strangers.
“It is the fastest influx of refugees since World War II. That’s a big challenge for the receiving countries,” Russell said. In conversations on the Ukrainian border with Romania, she often heard that the refugees wanted to “go home soon”. But experience has shown that this is not very realistic, said Russell.
The Unicef boss also recalled the situation of children in other crisis areas such as Afghanistan and Yemen, which are currently no longer in the public eye. In Afghanistan, for example, there is currently a “terrible humanitarian crisis”. Children were in danger of starving. “We expect that in the next two to three months, 95 percent of the population will be living below the poverty line,” Russell said.
