Briefing the Council on conflict-related developments and his visit to the country in December, Jeffrey Feltman said that while fighting had been initially concentrated around Donetsk airport, fighting is spreading throughout the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, reaching heavily populated civilian areas and inching dangerously close to Mariupol and Debaltseve.

“Encouraging signs of progress, such as the exchange of hundreds of prisoners, are quickly being overshadowed by renewed fighting and a deepening political stalemate,” said Feltman “Ukraine, as well as its neighbours and the broader region, cannot afford the current, violent status quo. The escalation of fighting threatens to unravel the Minsk Protocols.”

Intensification of the conflict had caused further deterioration of the humanitarian situation, Feltman said, stressing the importance of funding the 2015 Strategic Response Plan, which needed $189 million but had few commitments so far.

He also stressed that all parties to the conflict should guarantee free and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in need, irrespective of where they are located. A recent directive referring to movement between government-held to rebel-held areas could make movement of humanitarian actors harder, especially to areas beyond government control.

“Humanitarian actors must have access to do their life-saving work,” Feltman said. “A country which until a year ago had no displaced people now has at least 850,000 citizens displaced within its borders and over 600,000 in neighbouring states, according to Ukrainian sources.”


Image: UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz (file)