United Nations's video: Ukraine Humanitarian International Women s Day other topics - Daily Press Briefing 8 March 2022

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. Highlights: - Ukraine/Humanitarian - Moldova - Ukraine/Security Council - Ukraine/Staff  - International Women’s Day - Security Council - Mali - Costa Rica - Horn of Africa/Drought - Middle East UKRAINE/HUMANITARIAN Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that the situation in the eastern and north-eastern part of Ukraine remains volatile with reports from UN teams and open sources of heavy fighting, including in and around Mariupol, Chuhuiv, Kharkiv, Izyum, Chernihiv, Sumy and Sievierodonetsk. In northern Ukraine, open sources and UN teams are also reporting increasingly violent clashes on the outskirts of Kyiv, including Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, and that civilians who are trapped in some of those areas lack access to supplies and basic services. We welcome public communications by the two sides regarding their intention to facilitate safe passage for civilians out of conflict areas including Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy. Our humanitarian colleagues stress it is critical that civilians, whether they choose to stay or choose to leave are protected, and if they leave, it is in the direction of their choosing. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) today said that more than 2 million Ukrainians have now crossed international borders out of Ukraine. According to the UN Human Rights Office, between 24 February and 7 March at the end of the day, 1,335 civilian casualties were recorded, which includes 474 people killed. As mentioned earlier, the Office notes it is difficult to verify the actual number of deaths and injuries. Humanitarian organizations are scaling up response to impacted people in the east and the west of the country, as security allows. In the east, the International Committee of the Red Cross has provided more than 200,000 medical items to mobile clinics and the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières has delivered about 120 cubic meters of medical supplies to Ukraine. In the west, focus is primarily on support to internally displaced people. UNHCR is providing thermal blankets and mattresses for 6,000 people, complementing an earlier delivery of 18,500 high thermal blankets by the International Organization for Migration to support displaced people in Lviv. A Common Humanitarian Operations Coordination Centre has been established in Rzeszow in Poland, which will serve as a common space for all humanitarian organizations responding to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine and neighbouring countries. MOLDOVA Our UN team in neighbouring Moldova says 250,000 refugees have crossed the Ukrainian border in less than two weeks. More than 100,000 refugees remain in Moldova, and the UN Refugee Agency is helping local authorities assist these men, women and children. Nearly 70 per cent of those refugees, however, are women and girls, and nearly half of them are children.   UKRAINE/SECURITY COUNCIL Yesterday afternoon, the Security Council held a meeting on Ukraine. Briefing Council Members were the Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, and the new head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Catherine Russell. Mr. Griffiths noted that we already had enough on our hands, with many other unnecessary and unwanted conflicts leaving misery in their wake. We had no need for a further war, he stressed. Meanwhile, Ms. Russell said that she had just returned from the Romania-Ukraine border, where she met with mothers and children who had to flee their homes at a moment’s notice. She said that UNICEF and our partners are working 24 hours a day to meet rapidly escalating humanitarian needs in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries. Full highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=08%20March%202022