More than 14,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, where Moscow launched a new major assault on May 10, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. “As you know, over the past two weeks, fighting in the Kharkiv region” in northeastern Ukraine “has sharply intensified,” said the WHO representative in Ukraine, the Dr Jarno Habicht, during a press briefing in Geneva, via video link from kyiv.
“More than 14,000 people have been displaced in just a few days, and nearly 189,000 others still live within 25 kilometers of the border with the Russian Federation, facing significant risks due to ongoing fighting,” he said. he says. He clarified that these were the figures that the WHO had after speaking with local authorities, and said that some of his people went to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, while others others went elsewhere.
Gain territory
The ground assault launched by the Russian army in this border area, after an intensification of air attacks, allowed it to record its most significant territorial gains since the end of 2022. The Russian progression has now been stopped, says kyiv, this which Moscow refutes. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that it was “extremely concerned” by “the increase in humanitarian needs and forced displacements” following the Russian offensive.
The UN agency fears in particular that “conditions in Kharkiv, which already hosts some 200,000 internally displaced people, will become even more difficult if the ground offensive and incessant air attacks continue”, declared a spokesperson in Geneva , Shabia Mantoo, during the press briefing. “This could force many people to leave Kharkiv for safety and survival reasons, and seek protection elsewhere,” she added.