Ukraine: Situation Report, 14 Sep 2022 [EN/UK/RU]

HIGHLIGHTS

• The war in Ukraine has passed the 200-day mark, with the humanitarian needs of affected people only continuing to grow.

• Missile strikes hit a power and heating plant in Kharkiv, leading to wide-scale electricity and water supply disruptions in six oblasts of Ukraine.

• In newly accessible areas of Kharkivska and Khersonska oblasts, humanitarians are working with authorities to help them support the people who endured months of heavy fighting.

• Across Ukraine, over 580 humanitarian partners have provided life-critical aid and protection services to 13.3 million people.

• And 2.7 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs have been shipped from Ukraine’s ports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

ANALYSIS

General security and humanitarian situation

As the war passed the 200-day mark on 11 September, active hostilities continued in eastern and southern Ukraine, with more reports of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure – and wider-scale disruptions in power and water supplies. And with the Ukrainian Government reportedly regaining control over most of the eastern Kharkivska oblast and parts of the southern Khersonska oblast, there was also increasing concern for the needs of the people living in these newly accessible territories and how best to support them with winter approaching. UN agencies and partners on the ground are working closely with local authorities to determine needs and arrange deliveries of life-saving humanitarian assistance to the worst-affected areas.

The main fighting continued in the eastern Donetska oblast, where more than 100 civilian casualties – 34 killed and 72 more injured – were reported following missile strikes and shelling on both sides of the front line during the weekend, 9-11 September. They included 29 casualties just on 10 September in Government-controlled areas (GCA) of the oblast, with the cities of Bakhmut, Krasnohorivka and Pokrovsk most seriously impacted. In non-Government-controlled areas (NGCA), 35 civilian casualties were reported on 9 September in Donetsk city and Horlivka. Commenting on the tragic milestone of 200 days of the war, Donetska Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported that some 78,000 houses and apartment buildings had so far been damaged or destroyed in the GCA of the oblast, as well as almost 600 kindergartens and schools. In NGCA, it was reported that almost 7,000 residential buildings had so far been damaged, 300 educational facilities and hundreds of other civilian objects and infrastructure.

A similar reckoning took place in Kharkivska oblast – both as a result of ongoing shelling and through the assessments being conducted in newly accessible areas, which had been beyond Government control for half a year. More than 30 new civilian casualties were reported over the weekend – mainly in Kharkiv city on 9 September, when 9 people were reportedly injured in the shelling. Meanwhile, a city councillor from Izium, which has been among the cities reported to be retaken by Ukraine, said on 12 September that an estimated 1,000 residents had died there, and 80 per cent of the city’s infrastructure had been destroyed. He described an urgent need for health care and medicine and added that, while most of the 30,000- plus residents who had fled the city were now looking forward to returning, “the situation with critical infrastructure is very difficult.” Most of the now-former NGCA of Kharkivska oblast was reportedly heavily impacted by the war – with water, electricity and other basic services interrupted and much of the land mined, impeding the delivery of aid. A subsequent humanitarian security report issued by an international NGO said that three civilians were killed and one other injured in a landmine explosion on 12 September on a dirt road near the village of Makarove, north of Kharkiv.

Further, on 11 September, the Ukrainian authorities and a humanitarian partner reported that missile strikes had damaged a combined power and heating plant in Kharkiv and resulted in interruptions to both the electricity and water supply – not only in Kharkivska but also in Donetska oblast, north-eastern Sumska oblast, central Dnipropetrovska and Poltavska oblasts, and south-eastern Zaporizka oblast. Four energy workers were reported to have been killed in the attacks, and three more injured as thousands of households were left without power and water. Work reportedly continued in the following days to repair infrastructure and restore services, and the Ukrainian Government condemned what it described as the deliberate targeting of critical civilian infrastructure. At the time of writing, the water and power supply had been largely restored in the affected oblasts. Then, on 14 September, at least seven missiles were reported to have struck and damaged the Karachunivske Reservoir dam on the outskirts of Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovska oblast, reportedly causing flooding of residential buildings and interruptions in the water supply.

There meanwhile continued to be daily reports of attacks elsewhere in Ukraine resulting in civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure, reportedly including in the city of Mykolaiv and the southern Mykolaivska oblast – which reportedly has not been shelled on only 29 out of 200 days of the war so far – and in Sumska oblast, where a recent increase in missile strikes and shelling was reported.

Concerning the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) – located in the NGCA of Zaporizka oblast – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in its latest update from 13 September, said that, despite progress on repairs to power infrastructure, the overall situation “remains precarious.” IAEA informed that, while Ukrainian personnel had made progress repairing power lines to provide the plant with the external electricity it needs for cooling and other safety functions, all six reactors were currently shut down, and ZNPP’s four main external power lines were also down – so that the plant was not providing electricity to households, factories and other users. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, speaking on 12 September, reiterated his call for the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone aroundZNPP.