Geneva (EFE) remain under Ukrainian control.
As reported by the OCHA spokesman, Jens Laerke, some thirty humanitarian aid caravans coordinated by the UN have arrived in Ukraine since the start of the war, almost a year ago.
Humanitarian aid has been provided jointly by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Organization for Health (WHO).
a harsh winter
A first convoy of six trucks with water, medicines and emergency supplies arrived last Tuesday in the Toretsk area, located 10 kilometers from the front in the Donetsk province, and where 15,000 people still remain.
The second shipment of humanitarian aid with medicines, materials for the construction of shelters, first-aid kits and other survival supplies arrived on Thursday in the Juliaipole area, in the province of Zaporizhia, where there are 3,000 people.
This convoy also transported specific medicines for the most vulnerable people, such as pneumonia patients, the elderly and children.
In this area, the population has had neither electricity nor a drinking water supply since last March.
For Laerke, the harshness of the winter in eastern Ukraine makes the arrival of humanitarian aid to these parts of the country very urgent.
Asked about a possible OCHA contingency plan for a possible Russian offensive, the spokesman reiterated that the priority at this time is to deliver the maximum amount of aid possible to the places closest to the battlefront.
The next 6 months will be “critical”, according to the CIA
CIA director William Burns believes that the next six months will be “critical” in the war in Ukraine and that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks that the “political fatigue” that the conflict entails for the West could give his army a new chance to win on the battlefield.
In statements made at a Georgetown University event, broadcast by CBSNews, Burns has warned that “the key is going to be on the battlefield in the next six months or so it seems to us.”
In his opinion, Putin is betting that “time will work for him.” Burns spoke of “Putin’s arrogance” and noted that “not only will he not be able to make any further progress in Ukraine, but as each month passes, he is at greater and greater risk of losing the territory he has so far illegally wrested from Ukraine”.
Burns’ comments come amid warnings by Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky that Russia is preparing to launch a major offensive against the eastern part of the country, where missile attacks have already been reported. intensified this week.
Just today, at least two people have been killed and a third seriously injured in an early-morning Russian shelling of a building in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine.
Apparently, the two deceased were brothers and the injured man is the father of both, The Kyiv Independent reported on Friday.
“Russian troops fired on a residential building in Barvinkove, in the Kharkov region, at around 4:30 a.m. local time on February 3, killing two men,” according to the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov.
Syniehubov added that Russian forces shelled several settlements in that same region last night, mainly damaging civilian infrastructure.
Kharkov is a region close to the Ukrainian Donbas, where the biggest fighting is currently taking place between the Ukrainian army and Russian troops who want to ensure safe supply routes for weapons and other contingents in the east of the neighboring country.
