Every day, we see more and more disturbing information about people in eastern part of Ukraine being forced to take cover in basements from shelling that now again takes place day and night. There are mothers and wives who are looking for their loved ones which are missing as a result of the conflict. Basic activities of daily living such as fetching wood in the forest became very dangerous due the presence of mines and other remnants of war. There are still many wounded and people with chronic diseases with insufficient medicine available. People continue to die

More than two years after the start of the conflict, humanitarian needs remain high. Some people live in areas cut off from basic services or functioning markets. Numerous impoverished people need therefore new income generating activities. Thousands of houses need to be repaired or reconstructed while many vital installations and facilities for water, gaz or electricity need to be rehabilitated.

Our teams work alongside most vulnerable people and help them going through these hard times. The ICRC staff is working actively to restore damaged infrastructure critical to livelihood (like gas and water systems), provides support to the people with necessary assistance and psychological support and reminds those involved in the conflict about their obligations under international humanitarian law.

This newsletter is dedicated at highlighting important humanitarian issues and how our organization is responding to them on both sides of the line of contact. While over three million people have already benefited from ICRC programs for the last two years, we continue focusing our assistance on the most pressing needs of people affected by the conflict.

Alain Aeschlimann,
Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ukraine