Red Cross calls for easier movement in Donbas

The covid-19 pandemic has affected the whole world, in Ukraine it has greatly affected employment and poverty growth, as a result of which 51% of the population fell below the poverty line, Gilles Carbonnier, Vice President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told RBC in an interview on the eve of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum .

“In Donbass, in addition to the devastating effects of the conflict, the population is facing severe economic hardship due to COVID-19 related restrictions. This greatly complicates the lives of many people,” he continued. Family and social ties are affected by COVID-19 restrictions on movement along the contact line, reducing the resilience of the affected population and depriving people of their livelihoods, he cited an example. “One of the most tragic and significant consequences is that hundreds of thousands of older people have lost the opportunity to receive the pension they are entitled to after decades of work,” Carbonier said.

Last year, due to the pandemic, Ukraine closed checkpoints on the line of contact with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics; this year, the LPR limited the possibility of leaving the territory of Ukraine once a month

The pandemic-related closure of entry and exit checkpoints in eastern Ukraine deprives people of access to services and pensions, as well as the opportunity to see relatives living on the other side, as a result, some people, especially the elderly, were left without the support of loved ones and did not see each other for almost a year with them, the ICRC spokesman continues: “In some localities near the contact line, we have returned to the distribution of food and hygiene kits, which has not happened since the end of the acute phase of the conflict in 2016.” Given these circumstances, the ICRC strongly recommends that the Ukrainian authorities and entities in non-government-controlled territories comply with the requests of persons who need to cross the contact line for urgent humanitarian reasons, such as access to social services and benefits (for example,

The Vice President of the ICRC came to SPIEF to discuss humanitarian issues with the Russian authorities and the business community. “In today's rapidly developing world, humanitarian issues are much more relevant to the activities of large companies and corporations than it might seem at first glance,” says Carbonnier. For example, cyberattacks face significant risks for humanitarian organizations in the overall protection of critical social infrastructure and humanitarian data. He also intends to express the ICRC's concerns about access to a COVID-19 vaccine and the negative impact of climate change on people affected by armed conflict.