UN calls for safe aid delivery to Ukraine combat zones

The United Nations needs safe passage to deliver humanitarian aid to conflict zones in Ukraine, a senior official with the organization told the Security Council on Monday.

“Civilians in places like Mariupol, Kharkiv, Melitopol and elsewhere desperately need aid, especially life-saving medical supplies,” undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs Martin Griffiths told an emergency meeting on the disaster sparked by Russia’s invasion.

Griffiths urged all sides to ensure that civilians, homes and infrastructure in Ukraine were safeguarded.

“This includes allowing safe passage for civilians to leave areas of active hostilities on a voluntary basis, in the direction they choose,” he said after Ukraine rejected an earlier deal that would only allow its civilians to evacuate into Russia or Belarus.

The meeting came as Ukraine and Russia seek an agreement on creating ‘humanitarian corridors’ out of pummeled cities, as the civilian toll from the Russian assault mounts.

Russia said Monday it would open humanitarian corridors on Tuesday from 07:00 GMT, subject to Ukraine’s approval, listing evacuation routes from Kyiv as well as Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy - all of which have been under heavy Russian attack.

Kyiv’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said the conflict had blocked exports through Ukraine’s seaports, cutting off vast quantities of agricultural goods vital to the world’s food supplies.

The implications at the global level will be catastrophic, said Kyslytsya, noting that his country produces 55 percent of the world’s sunflower oil.

He also warned of the health threat from so many dead lying uncollected on the battlefield.

We are speaking about dozens of thousands of bodies decomposing in the fields of Ukraine, I’m talking about the bodies of the Russian soldiers, he said, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross to help repatriate fallen combatants and prisoners of war.

ARR