HIGHLIGHTS
The USG announces nearly $23 million in additional humanitarian funding for the complex emergency in Ukraine
Hostilities continue in eastern Ukraine, damaging electricity- and water-related infrastructure
Suspension of social payments and pensions to IDPs remains in effect
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
On July 7, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced nearly $23 million in additional U.S. Government (USG) humanitarian assistance to support conflict-affected people in Ukraine. The announcement, which includes nearly $15.6 million from State/PRM and more than $7.2 million from USAID/OFDA, brings total USG humanitarian assistance for Ukraine to more than $135 million since the start of the crisis in 2014. The additional State/PRM assistance to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will support food assistance and relief commodity distributions in eastern Ukraine, as well as health, protection, and shelter programs. The additional USAID/OFDA funding to four non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the UN World Food Program (WFP) will support economic recovery and livelihoods programs, shelter and protection interventions, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activities, and humanitarian coordination and logistics systems in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
As the conflict in Ukraine entered its third year in April, restrictions on freedom of movement and access to markets and basic services for conflict-affected people continued. The most recent Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) monitoring update, covering mid-February through mid-May, reported that local authorities continued to curtail civilian movements, and that people living close to the contact line—the border between government-controlled areas (GCAs) and nongovernment controlled areas (NGCAs)—are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations and abuses.
In an address to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on July 7, UN Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) for Human Rights Ivan Šimonović warned of a high risk for a reescalation of hostilities in Ukraine and condemned the conflictrelated deaths and injuries sustained to date.