Celebrity Media TV
© WFP/Marco Frattini Thousands of Ukrainians seek safety in neighbouring Poland.
Almost one child per second in Ukraine is becoming a refugee of the war, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, as the total number of people who have now fled the country since the Russian invasion began, passed three million.
“We have now reached three million mark in terms of movements of people out of Ukraine to neighbouring countries. And among these people there are some 157,000 third-country nationals,” said Paul Dillon, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), speaking in Geneva.
Some 1.5 million children have now joined the exodus from Ukraine, at a rate of just under one per second, since the Russian invasion began on 24 February.
“Every day, over the past 20 days, in Ukraine more than 70,000 children have become refugees. That’s every minute, 55 children fleeing the country,” said James Elder, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Trafficking fears
Highlighting that nine in 10 of those fleeing unrelenting violence in Ukraine are women and children, Mr. Elder warned that youngsters are prey to traffickers, as they arrive in unfamiliar new surroundings.
“To give a sense of the border that I used to visit - the main border, Medyka, Poland to Ukraine - it is scores of people standing around buses and minivans calling out names of capital cities - or at least it was a week ago - people getting onto those,” he said. “The vast, vast majority of course are people with wonderful intentions and great generosity, but there is no doubt given what we understand of trafficking in Europe, that that remains a very, very grave issue.”
The development follows a warning from the UN Secretary-General, who on Monday said that Russia’s military offensive against civilians was “reaching terrifying proportions”.
Mariupol horror
In Mariupol, humanitarians warned that the situation in the port city has deteriorated further, after further heavy Russian bombardment.
Hundreds of thousands of people are being “suffocated” by a lack of supplies and are unable to flee the city, besieged by Russian forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday described the situation as “dire and desperate”.
“The bottom line here is that hundreds of thousands of people remain without aid today,” said spokesperson Ewan Watson. “They are unable to leave the city today and they are essentially being suffocated in this city right now with no aid.”
Mr. Watson also confirmed that “some vehicles …were able to leave the city yesterday. The ICRC was not involved in that evacuation of people. But what I would say is that is really a drop in the ocean.”
Amid reports that families are being forced to gather water from streams and that fights have broken out over food, Mr. Watson urged the Ukrainian and Russian authorities to find a solution so that aid can reach the city’s people.
The ICRC spokesperson also announced that the Organization intended to evacuate people from the besieged northeastern city of Sumy on Tuesday, using 30 buses.
联合国儿童基金会：乌克兰战争几乎每秒钟都会产生一名儿童难民
“从乌克兰到邻国的人口流动现在已经达到了 300 万大关。在这些人中，约有 157,000 名第三国国民，”国际移民组织 ( IOM )发言人保罗·狄龙在日内瓦发表讲话时说。
自俄罗斯于 2 月 24 日开始入侵以来，约有 150 万儿童以每秒不到 1 人的速度逃离乌克兰。
“在过去的 20 天里，每天都有 70,000 多名乌克兰儿童成为难民。每分钟就有 55 名儿童逃离该国，”联合国儿童基金会 ( UNICEF )发言人詹姆斯·埃尔德 (James Elder ) 说。
贩卖恐惧
埃尔德先生强调说，十分之九的逃离乌克兰持续暴力的人是妇女和儿童，他警告说，当年轻人到达陌生的新环境时，他们会成为人贩子的猎物。
“为了让人们了解我曾经访问过的边界——主要边界，梅迪卡，波兰到乌克兰——有几十个人站在公共汽车和小型货车周围，喊着首都城市的名字——或者至少是一周前——人们进入那些，“他说。“当然，绝大多数人都是怀有美好愿望和慷慨大方的人，但毫无疑问，鉴于我们对欧洲人口贩运的理解，这仍然是一个非常非常严重的问题。”
这一事态发展是在联合国秘书长发出警告之后发生的，他 周一表示 ，俄罗斯对平民的军事进攻“达到了可怕的程度”。
马里乌波尔恐怖片
在马里乌波尔，人道主义者警告说，在俄罗斯进一步猛烈轰炸之后，港口城市的局势进一步恶化。
数十万人因缺乏补给而“窒息”，无法逃离被俄罗斯军队包围的城市。 红十字国际委员会（ICRC）周二将局势描述为“可怕和绝望”。
“这里的底线是，今天仍有数十万人没有援助，”发言人伊万·沃森说。“他们今天无法离开这座城市，他们现在基本上是在没有任何帮助的情况下被窒息在这座城市里。”
沃森先生还证实，“一些车辆……昨天能够离开这座城市。红十字国际委员会没有参与人员疏散。但我想说的是，这真的是沧海一粟。”
有报道称，家庭被迫从溪流中取水，并且为了食物而发生争斗，沃森先生敦促乌克兰和俄罗斯当局找到解决方案，以便援助能够到达该市的人民手中。
红十字国际委员会发言人还宣布，该组织打算于周二使用 30 辆公共汽车从被围困的东北部城市苏梅疏散民众。
联合国加大援助力度
在全国范围内，联合国人道主义人员正在他们可以到达的地方提供救生援助。但联合国儿童基金会的埃尔德先生报告称，“一次又一次地对关键基础设施进行不分青红皂白的攻击，尤其是水成为目标。
“从那里的那些同事那里传来轶事，我们知道一些家庭正在拆除所有加热器，将冷却水作为最后的手段，作为喝的东西。”
