The Ukrainian World Congress today calls upon all International Aid and Refugee NGOs including UNHCR, IOM, UNICEF, and the ICRC to urgently establish operations inside Ukraine to aid persons affected by the Russian War in Ukraine.
“There are millions of displaced persons inside Ukraine, many of them are lacking their basic needs like food, heat, shelter, schools for the children. Despite Ukrainian volunteers who are trying to help those people they still need urgent assistance from the international community,” stated UWC President Paul Grod.
“There is another tragedy happening inside Ukraine: women and children who are in fact forced to leave its territory because there is no support system for internally displaced persons. This is part of Putin’s plan to ethnically cleanse Ukraine of the Ukrainian people,” Grod continued. “We urgently call upon all aid organizations to show their bravery, as the Ukrainian people are, and set up operations inside Ukraine,” Grod concluded.
The UNHCR, the ICRC, UNICEF, IOM and other international NGOs must begin providing humanitarian aid immediately within the borders of Ukraine and provide displaced Ukrainians with their basic needs before they leave the country and become refugees. The Ukrainian World Congress stands ready to assist these NGOs in logistics and in any other way if required.
The UWC President thanked the international NGOs for their devoted work in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania and other countries with Ukrainian refugees and for facilitating humanitarian and medical response for those, who fled Ukraine because of Russian invasion.
According to the UN statistics, almost three million Ukrainians have fled Ukraine so far. However, surveys show that most Ukrainians would have wanted to stay inside Ukraine and they don’t want to leave. Internally displaced Ukrainians are also exposed to the additional risk of human trafficking.
