100 days of war in Ukraine, UN says there will be ‘no winner’
Geneva, Jun 3 (EFE).- There will be no winners in the war in Ukraine and Russia’s invasion, which entered its 100th day Friday, has left a trail of devastation and loss, the United Nations said Friday.
An estimated 15.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance due to Russia’s war on Ukraine, Amin Awad, the UN’s crisis coordinator for Ukraine said in a statement to mark the war’s grisly milestone.
“This war has and will have no winner,” he said.
“Rather, we have witnessed for 100 days what is lost: lives, homes, jobs and prospects. We have witnessed destruction and devastation across cities, towns and villages. Schools, hospitals and shelters have not been spared.”
The war has forced communities to flee their homes, uprooting 14 million Ukrainians and bringing education to a halt for around 3 million children, he added.
“All over the country, hundreds of thousands of people do not have access to water and electricity, and millions do not know where their next meal is coming from.
“One hundred days on, the war ravages unabated, especially in the east of the country. And with winter coming, millions of civilian lives could be in peril,” he warned.
He continued: “Our tireless efforts to respond to the war’s devastating impact will continue, robustly and stead-fast. But above all we need peace. The war must end now.”
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 after weeks of building up his troops along the country’s border.
The resulting war has sparked the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, with at least 4.7 million Ukrainians seeking shelter elsewhere in the continent, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) Friday.
Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Russian troops had occupied around 20% of Ukrainian territory, particularly in eastern and southern regions including the Donbas, an area that comprises the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, where fighting has been particularly heavy in recent weeks. EFE
abc-jt/ch
