SITUATION OVERVIEW
Two years into the conflict, which claimed more than 9,000 lives and resulted in some 21,000 additional casualties, humanitarian needs continue to be acute for some 3.1 million Ukrainians living close to the ‘contact line’, in areas beyond Government control and among the large swaths of displaced caused by the conflict. ‘Normalcy’ for many people living along the frontline in eastern Ukraine means dealing every day with violence, fighting, and a struggle to access the basics for life. Protection of civilians is a paramount concern and the humanitarian response continues to remain necessary and urgent, even as the conflict is now protracted.
The affected civilians and the humanitarian partners continue to face unrelenting access and protection challenges. Undue bureaucratic impediments imposed by parties to the conflict deprive hundreds of thousands of people of access to urgently needed essential medicines, food, shelter materials, water and sanitation, psychosocial support, and protection activities. It is now almost a year since the de-facto authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk imposed a mandatory ‘registration’ process for all international humanitarian organizations. This resulted in the suspension of operations for many aid agencies whose application with the committees were rejected, even when they fully complied with the bureaucratic requirements. At present, only two international organizations are allowed to directly operate in Donetsk and Luhansk NGCAs. The UN have resumed activities in Luhansk in late October 2015, but were forced to suspend activities or operate unofficially since April 2016. The UN submission of additional documentation in Luhansk and Donetsk, as requested by de facto authorities, remains unanswered. Government-imposed bureaucratic impediments persisting since the beginning of the conflict remain largely unresolved.
Freedom of movement for civilians is also high in the agenda. In May, official figures indicate that 725,000 people crossings through five checkpoints, 8 per cent more than in April. The checkpoint in Novotroitske fully resumed operations on 20 May and the pedestrian checkpoint on Stanytsia Luhanska opened again on 30 April after three weeks of closure each. This resulted in overload of other checkpoints and additional hardship for civilians.
In February, the Government suspended social payments due to anecdotal reports of frauds and started the verification process for some 600,000 IDPs in five regions – Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk. People registered as IDPs and living in the non-Government controlled area (NGCA) are massively travelling to the Government-controlled area (GCA) to renew their IDP certificates, a compulsory requirement to access social payments and pensions. While the Government has the legitimate right to combat fraud, the verification resulted in undue suffering. Partners appealed the Government to stop suspending IDPs' certificates on the basis of data provided outside the procedure established by law; to de-link the pensions and social payments from the IDP status and elaborate a scheme on prevention of fraud based on national and international human rights standards. It did also recommend for a transparent system, one that provides clear information about the criteria for any cancellation of benefits, and proper communication to those concerned to be put in place.
The HRP funding is critically low (17 per cent of the requirements). While some contributions are yet to be recorded, critical funding shortages will force organizations to halt some activities already in June 2016 unless additional funding become available. As an example, the health response is at high risk. Unless funding is mobilized immediately, 450,000 people will not accede to medicines, and over 150,000 patients, including children and pregnant women, will be deprived of much needed medical support.