The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs regrets that it has “no access” to the territories under Russian control
MADRID, 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Kherson region has become in recent weeks one of the main focuses of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces, at the mercy of a population forced to flee en masse from an area that lacks the most basic supplies and where there are already “ghost towns”.
A team from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recently toured some of the towns that have passed into the hands of the Ukrainian authorities in recent weeks, after months in which they have remained inaccessible under control Russian.
Villages like Visokopilliya, Novovorontsovka, Novooleksandrivka or Borivska that are slowly trying to regain the lost pulse of normalcy, although as OCHA spokesman Saviano Abreu emphasizes, this is difficult in a country where conflict continues day and Jerson is one of the main foci of dispute.
Abreu affirms in an interview with Europa Press that there are towns like Visokopilliya that are practically deserted: before the upsurge of the conflict it had a population of more than 10,000 inhabitants and now it barely exceeds a thousand. “The impression I had was that we were entering a ghost town,” he says, “shocked” by what he saw on the ground.
Those who remain in this type of zone persist either because they want to or because they had no choice –there are elderly or vulnerable people–. On the other hand, few dare to return, although some Ukrainians have taken the step after liberation and, when asked about possible “fears”, they answer: “It’s my house.”
OCHA works to improve humanitarian assistance in these types of enclaves, for which it collaborates with the authorities loyal to the Government of Volodimir Zelenski. In the case of the Kherson administration, the homonymous capital remains under Russian rule, so the governor’s office is in Krivoy Rog, in neighboring Dnipropetrovsk.
In recent weeks, Moscow and kyiv have crossed accusations about an alleged imminent large-scale offensive and the Russian authorities have managed the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from the city of Kherson, facilitating their transfer to the right bank of the Dnipro river.
The OCHA does not have any type of information on this process, to the extent that it does not have “any access” to the areas controlled by the Russian forces and Moscow does not collaborate in terms of information either, not even to verify data, so Today he avoids speculating about possible forced transfers.
Abreu points out that “people have few options left” when the only messages you receive is that “there is going to be more and more destruction”, but demands that all people who want to move can do so “safely” and “to the place let them decide.”
The OCHA spokesman recalls that International Humanitarian Law stipulates that all warring parties are obliged not only to allow the arrival of aid and care for civilians, but also to “facilitate” this work, which may be key to the survival of a population that “is paying a very high price”.
International Law also prohibits attacks on civil infrastructure or basic supply networks, but the reality is far from these supposed commitments. In Mikolaiv, for example, the destruction of a water supply channel on the Russian side has caused cuts since April, Abreu says.
Without water, without electricity, without gas and with hardly any basic products – in some areas the markets have reopened but the goods remain “very scarce” -, the civilians depend on external aid. Frequent shelling complicates repair and rebuilding work, despite the fact that these are equally essential jobs.
“I think I did not see a single house that did not have some kind of damage caused by the war,” says the OCHA spokesman, recalling his stopover in one of the towns recovered by Ukraine and that now they must prepare against the clock for a winter that begins to be noticed. “It’s already very cold,” warns this person in charge.
