Posted on 07 March 2022
Humanitarian organisations are struggling to get relief items into Ukraine through normal channels. With over 1.5million Ukrainians having already crossed the border, the most recent attempt to support humanitarian corridors have again failed. The latest attempt at maintaining an open humanitarian corridor also failed overnight (NZT), with their pathway to Russia and Belarus being described as “completely immoral” by Ukrainian authorities.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Administration stated that there is ‘credible’ evidence of Russia committing war crimes. The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation but prosecuting these charges will prove challenging.
A targeted, autonomous sanctions regime to enable New Zealand to sanction Russia has also been enacted. It will give New Zealand the power to place "further sanctions on those responsible for or associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including people, services, companies, and assets"
The UNHCR Refugee Response Plan and OCHA Flash Appeal have also been released:
- Ukraine Situation Regional Refugee Response Plan: March – September 2022 (UNHCR – March 2022) This inter-agency Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP) outlines the comprehensive response and activities to support countries’ efforts to protect and assist refugees coming from Ukraine.
- Flash Appeal Ukraine: March – May 2022 (OCHA – March 2022) For a rapid scale-up of principled and effective humanitarian response in existing and new areas of Ukraine for a duration of the three months from March to May 2022, humanitarian partners require US$1.1 billion to help more than 6 million people in need.
The following CID members have launched appeals to support the Ukraine response. Please provide any updates: