Ukraine: Situation Report, 24 Aug 2022 [EN/UK/RU]

HIGHLIGHTS

• Six months of Russia’s war on Ukraine have caused death and suffering on a dramatic scale and led to a grave humanitarian crisis.

• Today, nearly 18 million people – 40 per cent of the country’s population – need humanitarian assistance and the situation is expected to deteriorate further in the winter months.

• A strike on 24 August left a group of civilians killed and injured close to the rail station in Chaplyne, in central Ukraine. Other attacks were reported on the same day.

• In total, over 840 civilians were killed or injured in the first three weeks of August alone, and more than 13,400 since the war began.

• Humanitarians assisted 12 million people. Yet, obstructions imposed on aid workers prevented or limited assistance in areas beyond the control of the Ukrainian Government.

General security and humanitarian situation

The war in Ukraine reached the six-month mark with intense hostilities driving increasing humanitarian needs across the entire front line and in large parts of the east and south of the country. Nearly 18 million people – 40 per cent of the country’s entire population – need humanitarian assistance, with massive destruction of civilian infrastructure disrupting access to critical services, particularly water and health care. With the winter approaching, the situation will likely deteriorate further, and a new wave of displacement is expected, particularly from the east and heavily destroyed towns, where people have no access to gas or electricity, or are living in damaged houses. Some 628,000 private households and businesses in Ukraine remains without electricity due to the hostilities – more than half, 381,000, located in Donetska oblast, according to the Ukrainian authorities.

Over the last week, continued fighting and shelling in eastern and southern Ukraine, and strikes elsewhere in other areas, caused additional destruction of civilian infrastructure and a large number of civilian deaths and injuries. On 24 February, a strike left a group of civilians killed and injured close to the rail station in Chaplyne, in central Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation later informed that the attack targeted a military train at the Chaplyne railway station in the Dnipropetrovska oblast, killing, according to them, servicemen of the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and destroying military equipment that was being transported to the Donbas region. The strike, however, reportedly also harmed civilians and civilian objects in the surrounding areas. The Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said she was truly shocked by the killing of civilians, including children, who died in places where they expected to be safe, in their homes or travelling with their families. She said the human toll of the attack in Chaplyne is just one more example of the level of suffering that this war is causing the people of Ukraine. Several other attacks across the country also killed civilians over the last week. Recent days have also seen intense shelling of frontline cities, including Nikopol and Zelenodolsk, in Dnipropetrovska oblast, where hostilities have left a path of destruction, with dozens of houses damaged, as well as schools, shops and pharmacies.

In the eastern Donetska oblast, more than 120 civilian casualties were reported just last weekend, from 18 to 21 August, according to authorities on both sides of the front line. At least 12 civilians were reported by the oblast authorities to have been killed and another 25 injured in Government-controlled areas (GCA), with the cities of Avdiivka and Bakhmut coming under continuous shelling. Twelve civilians were also reported to have been killed and 52 more injured in non-Governmentcontrolled areas (NGCA) during the same period, and Donetsk city was reported to have come under intensive shelling 23 August. Approximately 100 houses were also reportedly damaged in both GCA and NGCA as well as other civilian buildings including educational facilities.

Kharkiv was also hit, and other parts of Kharkivska oblast continue to suffer daily air attacks. Rights groups reported that missile strikes in Kharkiv overnight 17 to 18 August resulted in a relatively high number of civilian casualties – with 17 people reportedly killed and 32 injured. Meanwhile, other cities and oblasts also continued to be impacted by the hostilities.
The southern oblast of Mykolaivska also reportedly continued to come under daily shelling during the week, including 20 August – when a missile reportedly struck a residential building in the city of Voznesensk injuring 14 people, including three children.

Tensions continued to rise over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), located in the city of Enerhodar in NGCA of Zaporizka oblast, with more fighting reported. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking 18 August during his second visit to Ukraine since the start of the war, said he remained “gravely concerned” about the unfolding situation and that “common sense must prevail to avoid any actions that might endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the nuclear plant.” He said the UN Secretariat supports sending an International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) inspection mission, provided both Ukraine and Russia agree, and that meanwhile the area needs to be demilitarized. It was subsequently reported that on 22 August a civilian car was caught in shelling and a heating distribution point was damaged in Enerhodar – and that the driver was reportedly killed and a second person critically injured. A mission from the IAEA to assess the situation of the plant is expected to take place in the coming days.