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Preliminary Appeal
Ukraine
Emergency Assistance to Refugees from Eastern Ukraine in Russia & Ukraine – UKR151
Preliminary Appeal Target: US$854,616
Geneva, 18 December 2014
As a result of the Crimean crisis and the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine the humanitarian situation deteriorated dramatically in the spring of 2014. This was due to fighting between militia groups in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, demanding autonomy / independence of their territory from the central authorities of Ukraine, and on the other side – the forces and armed groups under the central government in Kiev. Due to the use of heavy artillery, aircraft, tanks and rocket launchers, industry and infrastructure in the region thousands of homes, factories and mines were destroyed, including the metropolitan areas of eastern Ukraine – Donetsk and Lugansk. Agriculture in this fertile region was also totally destroyed.
The rise in numbers of refugees and IDPs in the past month coincides with a recent deterioration of the situation - worsening law and order, fear of abductions, human rights violations and the disruption of state services. Besides the rising number of IDPs more than 5.2 million people are living in a conflict zone or affected by the continuing conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
It is clear that the refugees and IDPs in Russia and Ukraine will not be able to return home and remain in camps and other places of refuge which have not been winterised and provide hardly any protection against the extreme cold of a Ukranian/Russian winter.
ACT members Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) and the Russian Orthodox Church, Russia Round Table (RoC RRT) are planning to provide non-food items, water and sanitation, food security, health and hygiene kits along with psycho-social activities to assist the neediest refugee/IDP families in Ukraine and Russia.
The ACT Secretariat is requesting urgent indications of pledges/funding latest by Friday 9 January 2015 to help the ACT members responding in Ukraine to make decisions and proceed with this response.
For the full appeal document, please click here.
