GENEVA – The United Nations said on Jan 15 that it needs US$4.2 billion (S$5.6 billion) in 2024 to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine and help millions who have fled, urging people not to forget the war-torn country’s plight as the Gaza war dominates attention.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is set to enter its third year in February, and the UN said it was vital to maintain support for millions whose lives have been overturned by the conflict.

The UN hopes to reach 8.5 million people within Ukraine and 2.3 million refugees and their host communities in eastern Europe.

As he launched the plan in Geneva, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths asked: “Remember Ukraine?”

“Please do not forget Ukraine while there are many other places in the world that grab our attention.”

“As we go into 2024, the competition for funding is going to be more,” he acknowledged, citing the “considerable” costs of the Gaza war.

Ukrainians “need your help, they need your funding”, Mr Griffiths said, stressing: “Humanitarian aid remains the lifeline, without which they will perish.”

The full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022 was the biggest invasion of a European country since World War II and the largest refugee crisis faced by the continent since the 1939 to 1945 conflict.

Russia has intensified its aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent weeks. Bolstering its arsenal, it has geared up for a long war and reoriented its economy.

“The recent month has been a month of great savagery for the people of Ukraine... It’s a war that is going as fast and hard and harshly as ever,” Mr Griffiths said.

“This plan is based on the pessimistic assumption that the war will continue throughout 2024.”

The UN said 14.6 million people will need humanitarian assistance in Ukraine in 2024 – 40 per cent of the population – of which it will try to reach the 8.5 million most in need.

Mr Griffiths said the highest priority was the 3.3 million people – “a shockingly high number” – living on the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Mr Griffiths and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr Filippo Grandi, launched the joint plan at the UN’s Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Some 6.3 million people have fled Ukraine and remain refugees, mostly across Europe.

The regional refugee response plan is seeking US$1.1 billion and targets reaching 2.3 million refugees and host communities.

“Millions of refugees from Ukraine still need urgent support,” Mr Grandi insisted.

Only half of school-age Ukrainian refugee children are enrolled in schools in host countries, he said, while a quarter of refugees in need struggle to access healthcare.

Only 40 per cent to 60 per cent are employed, the UN said – often below their qualifications – while many remain vulnerable with no means to support themselves.

Unlike other crises, “these people are not refugees from their government”, Mr Grandi said.

“They are fleeing from the occupation, the invasion and the Russian bombing.”

The high commissioner said the chief focus was on Moldova, which is outside the European Union and its over-arching EU programme to help Ukrainian refugees.

He said he would visit Moldova later this week and then spend nearly a week in neighbouring Ukraine.

Besides the refugees in other countries, Mr Grandi noted that around four million Ukrainians have fled their homes but remain within the country’s borders.

Ukraine “remains the largest displacement crisis in the world”, he said.

Focus on hardest-hit

The 2023 humanitarian response plan for within Ukraine sought US$3.9 billion and, to date, has been 64 per cent funded. In 2024, it is asking for US$3.1 billion.

The UN said despite access challenges – particularly to areas occupied by Russian forces – aid workers reached 10.5 million people in Ukraine in 2023.

In its global humanitarian appeals in 2024, the UN has tried to rein in its objectives, seeking to prioritise those in need with smaller appeals – in the hope that they will be more reliably funded. AFP