Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis

After months of posturing while simultaneously denying any plans to attack, Russia’s Vladimir Putin assaults on multiple cities in Ukraine began overnight on Feb. 24 and have continued day and night since then.

The Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s (CDP) response to this crisis is focused on humanitarian needs that arise, particularly among internally displaced peoples (IDPs) and refugees. We are not looking at the conflict itself except for how it affects population movement and humanitarian needs. To that end, this profile is not providing detailed updates about the status of the war as we believe that is better done by news media.

In their Situation Report on July 13, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said, “Fighting and hostilities went on unabated over the last week, causing deaths, destruction and impacting the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, mainly in the east.”

Humanitarian challenges continue to grow and aid workers are anticipating a multi-year recovery will be required.

Putin stated that Russian forces were targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure, not people or communities. However, data and stories from Ukraine paint a different picture, including thousands of civilian casualties.

This is the largest mobilization of forces in Europe since World War II. This latest attack is part of a multi-year crisis stemming back to 2014 and beyond.

CNBC reported: “Heightened fears of a military conflict between Russia and Ukraine have been present for some time, and eastern Ukraine has been the location of a proxy war between the two countries. Soon after Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, pro-Russian separatists proclaimed two republics in the eastern part of the country: the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic — much to the Ukrainian government’s consternation. Since then, there have been ongoing skirmishes and fighting in the region, which is known as the Donbas, between Ukraine’s troops and separatists.”