Maintenance of Peace and Security of Ukraine …

While intensive discussions are ongoing to secure an extension and improvements to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, rising attacks on civilians are impacting humanitarian aid, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as speakers took stock of the ongoing fallout of the war on Ukraine which is inching past the fifteenth month mark.

Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said that hostilities, including missile strikes, appeared to be escalating on both sides of the front line, with civilian casualties rising to their highest levels in months. 

Against this backdrop, he outlined a slew of challenges facing the provisioning of humanitarian aid on the ground, including obstructed access to communities on the north-eastern border with the Russian Federation and near the front line, as well as attacks on humanitarian facilities. 

Turning to the Black Sea Grain Initiative, he said that 30 million metric tons of cargo have been safely exported from Ukrainian ports, with over half to developing countries and least developed countries, including towards humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Somalia. \

In the ensuing debate, speakers were near unanimous in their call for unhindered humanitarian access to civilians in need and for the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, emphasizing its crucial role in ensuring global food security.  A number of delegates also voiced concern over deteriorating humanitarian conditions and mounting civilian casualties in Ukraine.