Attachments
New York, 29 April 2025
As delivered
Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President,
I welcome the opportunity to brief the Council on Ukraine today along with Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo.
Since our last briefings in March and April, the humanitarian situation has worsened, despite ceasefire opportunities. As peace talks continue, the human toll of the war is intensifying, with relentless attacks killing and injuring civilians, including children.
Civilians are living under constant threat, especially in front-line regions like Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and border communities in Sumy.
Waves of missile and drone strikes in densely populated areas continue to cause mass civilian casualties and damage or destroy apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure.
We are particularly concerned about the use of cluster munitions because of their notorious wide-area, indiscriminate and long-term effects that have led more than 100 States to prohibit them.
On 24 April, the Russian Federation launched a large-scale, coordinated attack on Kyiv city and at least eight other regions of Ukraine. According to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), at least nine civilians were killed in Kyiv and 90 were injured, including 12 children. Forty-four people were hospitalized.
Over this past weekend and even yesterday, hostilities continued along the front lines, resulting in further civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure. Donetsk region is most heavily impacted.
Mr. President,
So far this year, not a single day has passed without civilians being killed or injured in attacks. In the first three months of the year, OHCHR verified 2,641 civilian casualties – nearly 900 more than during the same period in 2024, and over 600 more than early 2023.
From 1 to 24 April, 848 civilian casualties were verified by OHCHR, marking a 46 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. The verification process is still ongoing, with casualty numbers expected to rise.
The operating environment remains highly dangerous for humanitarian workers. From 1 January to 23 April, there were 38 verified security incidents impacting humanitarian staff within 20 kilometres of the front line. This has left three aid workers dead and 21 injured while delivering life-saving assistance.
Mr. President,
As this war continues, millions of lives are impacted daily, essential services are disrupted and humanitarian needs deepened.
Attacks on healthcare services and health facilities are crippling access to maternal care. Pregnant women are now giving birth amid blackouts, medicine shortages and under attack, with a 12 per cent rise in birth complications reported by health workers. For many expectant mothers, basic, life-saving care is simply no longer available.
Strikes on schools continue to deprive children of safe education. According to OHCHR, 129 education facilities were damaged or destroyed during the first three months of the year. Due to ongoing hostilities, at least 600,000 school-age children are compelled to learn remotely, separated from friends and teachers, and risk falling behind in their studies.
Hostilities have driven further displacement. The International Organization for Migration reports that nearly 40,000 people have been uprooted from their homes this year, mainly in the front-line regions of Kherson, Kharkiv, Donetsk, the border areas of Sumy and elsewhere.
In total, nearly 3.7 million people remain internally displaced within Ukraine and, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, almost 7 million Ukrainian people are registered as refugees, most of them in Europe.
Women and children, as in many global crises, continue to bear a disproportionate burden. As the war drags on, the toll on them increases.
UN Women reports that sexual and gender-based violence has surged by 36 per cent, while domestic violence has spiked by 20 per cent in just the past year. Nearly 2.5 million women and girls urgently need specialized protection services. Yet resources remain dangerously thin.
Mr. President,
Since our last briefing, local media have reported on civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure in the Bryansk and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation.
I must emphasize once again: Under international humanitarian law, civilians and civilian objects must be protected. This means that indiscriminate attacks are strictly prohibited. It also means that parties must take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm, whether they are launching attacks or defending against them.
And we lack safe, unimpeded humanitarian access to reach an estimated 1.5 million civilians in need in areas of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia currently under occupation by the Russian Federation.
Once again, international humanitarian law is clear: All parties must allow the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need and ensure that humanitarian workers can move safely and freely. Obstructions that leave the civilian population without the essentials to survive run contrary to this obligation.
Mr. President,
Nearly 13 million people in Ukraine need humanitarian aid, including women, children, older persons and people with disabilities.
With thanks to donors for their support, the UN and partners are doing their utmost to respond. In the first three months of 2025 alone, over 340 humanitarian organizations, largely national NGOs, reached an estimated 2.3 million people with life-saving assistance. Aid delivery has been most extensive in front-line areas, providing food, provision of emergency water, essential medicines and emergency health services.
Due to the sharp contraction in humanitarian funding and the subsequent global humanitarian reset, the UN and partners have further reprioritized the Ukraine Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan to focus on reaching 4.8 million people with urgent, life-saving aid in 2025, requiring US$1.75 billion.
The objective is to reach those most at risk and most in need, centring on four core response priorities: people near the front line, evacuations, emergency response after strikes, and aid to the most vulnerable among the internally displaced people.
Without increased support, even prioritized life-saving efforts are at risk. Every contribution matters.
Mr. President,
I reiterate our earlier calls to this Council for urgent, collective action on Ukraine.
First: Ensure the protection of civilians – including humanitarian and health workers – and critical infrastructure. And ensure that humanitarians have safe, rapid and unimpeded access to civilians in need, wherever they are.
Second: Scale up financial support. Underfunding is forcing critical programmes to scale down, even as the operational environment becomes more complex and dangerous. Additional resources are needed now to save lives and sustain assistance.
Third: Achieve a just peace. Every effort, whether aimed at a temporary pause or a lasting agreement, must prioritize the protection and needs of civilians.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Disclaimer
- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.