Statement of the Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine (May 24, 2022)
The humanitarian situation in regions under the control of the Kiev authorities is rapidly deteriorating and approaching a critical level. According to the UN Children's Fund, there are 8.7 million hungry people in Ukraine, with 22.8 per cent of children under the age of five suffering from malnutrition. At the same time, the Kiev regime, despite acute food shortages and the threat of a food crisis, neglecting the welfare of its own people, is "ready for anything" to please countries of the collective West, which, hypocritically claiming humanitarian support, seek to export grain from Ukraine as quickly as possible through the so-called "solidarity corridors" engaged by the European Union, with absolutely no concern about what will happen in the country after the emptying of Ukrainian grain storage facilities.
All this is happening against the background of the unceasing hysteria of the "civilised West" and their false accusations against the Russian Federation of artificially creating a food crisis in the world.
According to information received from captured Ukrainian servicemen, SSU officers, at the instigation of Western handlers, prepared another provocations at grain storage facilities, following a previously practiced scenario in Rubizhnoe in Lugansk People's Republic and Orekhovoe in the Zaporozhye region, in order to accuse Russian servicemen of allegedly indiscriminate strikes against civilian infrastructure:
Nationalist militants Prosyanaya, Dnepropetrovsk region, have booby-trapped the Prosyanaya grain elevator, which they plan to blow up in the near future;
in Vrubovka in Lugansk People's Republic, the Ukrainian Armed Forces deployed MLRS systems on the territory of a grain-processing plant. At the same time, the nationalists have been systematically shelling Russian Armed Forces positions, provoking them to return fire.
Such actions by Ukrainian nationalists imitate the tactics of the "scorched-earth" by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War and contravene all generally accepted moral norms and principles of international humanitarian law.
Despite all the difficulties and obstacles imposed by the Ukrainian side, over the past day, without the participation of Kiev, 17,586 people were evacuated from dangerous areas, 2,246 of them children, and in total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 1,444,565 people have already been evacuated, of which 240,575 are children. The state border of the Russian Federation was crossed by 199,422 personal vehicles including 3,722 over the past 24 hours.
More than 9,500 temporary accommodation centres continue to operate in the regions of the Russian Federation. The refugees are dealt with on an individual basis and are promptly assisted with various pressing issues relating to onward accommodation, employment assistance, places for children in kindergartens and educational institutions, and the provision of entitlements to social benefits.
Over the past 24 hours, the hotline of the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response, federal executive authorities, constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various NGOs received 109 requests from foreign and Ukrainian citizens to evacuate to Russia, the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as to the Russian Armed Forces-controlled areas of Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kharkov and Kherson regions. In total there are 2,756,123 such appeals from 2,136 locations in Ukraine in the database.
In addition, 70 foreign vessels from 16 countries remain blocked in 6 Ukrainian ports (Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhniy). The threat of shelling and high mine danger posed by official Kiev prevents vessels from entering the high seas unhindered.
In confirmation of this, the Russian Federation is opening daily from 08:00 to 19:00 (Moscow time) a humanitarian corridor, which is a safe lane south-west of Ukraine's territorial sea, 80 nautical miles long and 3 nautical miles wide.
Detailed information in English and Russian on the modus operandi of the maritime humanitarian corridor is broadcast daily every 15 minutes on VHF radio on 14 and 16 international channels in English and Russian.
At the same time, the Kiev authorities continue to avoid engaging with representatives of states and ship-owning companies to resolve the issue of ensuring the safe passage of foreign vessels to the assembly area.
The danger to navigation from Ukrainian mines drifting off their anchors along the coasts of Black Sea states remains.
As a result of the measures taken by the Russian Navy, the mine threat in the waters of the port of Mariupol has been eliminated and measures are being taken to restore the port infrastructure.
A humanitarian corridor 115 miles long and 2 miles wide in the direction of the Black Sea is organised for the safe passage of foreign vessels from Mariupol port from 08.00 am on May 25, 2022.
The Russian Federation is taking a full range of comprehensive measures to ensure the safety of civilian navigation in the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Demining detachments of the Russian Armed Forces and the EMERCOM of Russia are carrying out land and facility clearance tasks in the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics. A total of 1,721.28 hectares were checked (including 98.07 hectares during the day), 35 buildings (including 13 socially important facilities), 1 bridge and 9.64 km of roads. 9,564 explosives were detected and defused, 200 of them during the day.
Federal executive authorities, together with the subjects of the Russian Federation, various public organizations, patriotic movements, continue to accumulate humanitarian aid. More than 26,5 tonnes of basic necessities and food kits, including baby food and life-saving medicines, have been prepared at collection points.
The greatest contributors to the relief effort were:
Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters, Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, Federal Service of State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transport, Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Federal Agency for Nationalities;
republics of Buryatia, Dagestan, Crimea, Tatarstan, Chechen Republic, Altai, Trans-Baikal, Krasnodar and Primorsky territories, Arkhangelsk, Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Leningrad, Moscow, Rostov, Samara, Sverdlovsk, Tula, Ulyanovsk, Yaroslavl regions, as well as Moscow city;
among political parties and non-profit organisations: United Russia, the People's Front All-Russian Public Movement, the All-Russian public organisation of veterans Boyevoe Bratstvo, the Russian Humanitarian Mission, the open joint-stock company Russian Railways and the All-Russian public and state organisation Russian Women's Union.
Since March 2, 22,430.8 tons of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered to Ukraine, 1,048 humanitarian actions have been carried out, including 3 actions in Kharkov and Kherson regions, as well as in Donetsk People's Republic, during which 510.4 tons of basic necessities, medicines and food were transferred to the civilian population of the liberated areas.
On May 24, 2022, 4 humanitarian actions have been planned and are currently being carried out in Kharkov and Kherson regions, in Donetsk People's Republic, during which 340 tons of basic necessities, medicine and food will be distributed.