Humanitarian situation in 2021
After seven years of armed conflict, humanitarian needs remained critical on both sides of the “contact line” – the 427km-long stretch of land dividing eastern Ukraine into Government- and non-Government-controlled areas (GCA and NGCA). The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated people’s needs and led to the introduction of severe restrictions on movement, decreasing livelihood opportunities, and pushing the already fragile health system to a breaking point.
While the GCA significantly eased movement restrictions during the second half of 2021, requirements for crossing the “contact line” applied in NGCA continued to prevent people from enjoying greater freedom of movement and pose obstacles to accessing basic services, and social benefits and entitlements in GCA. Of the 2.9 million people estimated to be in need, 1.1 million people lived in the GCA of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts, including over 133,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), while over 1.6 million people resided in NGCA. In addition, 160,000 IDPs resided in other oblasts across Ukraine.
Among the most affected were older people living in NGCA, who used to cross to GCA regularly to access pensions. Ukraine continued to be one of the “oldest” humanitarian crises globally, with one in three people in need of humanitarian assistance aged over 60. In the meantime, humanitarian access remained seriously constrained, undermining the provision of principled humanitarian assistance, while the humanitarian crisis continued to be at risk of further politicization.
Published in GI-Mail 07/2022 (English edition).
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