By AFP | 2024-05-21

KYIV -- The United Nations (UN) refugee agency UNHCR May 20 warned that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine was degenerating, with some four million people already displaced including "some very, very vulnerable people."

Karolina Lindholm Billing, the UN agency's representative in Ukraine, highlighted the fallout from the ongoing Russian offensive around Kharkiv province, with countless civilians often left without basics such as electricity and water.

Russian troops since May 10 have carried out a ground assault in the northeastern region, where they have achieved their largest territorial gains in the last 18 months.

Lindholm Billing said, as of May 19, some 10,300 people had been evacuated in border areas "and evacuations still continue."

And she noted that "those who still live in these frontline settlements are usually elderly."

'Really heartbreaking'

She said many were battling trauma and shock, carrying scant personal belongings in plastic bags as they left the area in tears.

"Elderly couples who had been living their lives in peace... are now uprooted and live in a collective center somewhere in Ukraine without knowing if they will ever be able to go back home or just struggling to build a new life from scratch in a new location," added Lindholm Billing.

"They've left everything behind, and it's really heartbreaking."

She stressed that countless vulnerable people just "don't have the resources or the capacity to just set up a new life somewhere here in the centre of the country."

The UN representative also warned that if the numbers of displaced went on rising, then receiving and helping them would pose a huge logistical challenge.

"But of course, if 10,000 is multiplied to become a million or more, it obviously puts an enormous strain on the system."

As the conflict drags on, and Russia expands its offensive, "I think that the big worry [is] that Ukrainians have no choice but to keep on running," she concluded, warning that the international community "cannot stop."