UNHCR spoke about evacuation in the Kharkiv region, assistance to displaced people and a “Workshop on Wheels”

Socportal asked its representatives to talk about assistance to residents of Kharkiv Region who were forced to flee because of the attempted Russian offensive in May, assistance to IDPs and reconstruction of destroyed houses.

What kind of assistance do people evacuated from Kharkiv region receive due to the intensification of hostilities? What can evacuees expect now and how can those afraid to leave their homes be supported?

More than 10,300 people have been evacuated from their home villages in the border areas of Kharkiv Oblast since 10 May. The evacuation was carried out by the Government of Ukraine with the support of volunteers and humanitarian organisations.

The majority of evacuees who were forced to leave their homes with only a few personal belongings are vulnerable persons, namely the elderly and persons with disabilities, who were unable to evacuate earlier. Psychologists providing support in co-operation with UNHCR report that many suffer from acute stress, anxiety and experience panic attacks as a result of these events.

A transit centre was opened in Kharkiv to accommodate and support many evacuees who are part of vulnerable groups. The opening of the centre took place thanks to public authorities and humanitarian organisations, in particular UNHCR and its national partners NGOs Proliska and Right to Protection. The organisations provide various types of humanitarian assistance, namely basic necessities, psychosocial support, legal assistance, registration for cash assistance and advice on affordable housing options for people forced to leave their homes. More than 1,500 people were registered for cash assistance thanks to UNHCR and partners.

The vast majority of evacuees expressed a desire to stay with family members either in rented accommodation or in a temporary accommodation site (TAS) in Kharkiv, and not to move far from their own homes in order to return as soon as the situation permits. UNHCR is seeking information on other temporary shelter options together with humanitarian partners and government authorities.

At the same time, an increasing number of people are evacuating from frontline communities on their own, in particular from Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, and Kherson regions in the central and western parts of the country. The Government of Ukraine is leading the response and is seeking assistance to support and accommodate IDPs.

UNHCR is concerned that if Russian offensive operations and missile strikes do not stop, the situation will worsen in Kharkiv, the second most populous city in Ukraine, which already hosts some 200,000 IDPs. A Russian offensive could force many people to leave the city and seek protection elsewhere.

UNHCR in Ukraine provides financial support to families who have received internally displaced persons. Please tell us about this initiative. What does the support include, how many people have benefited, what criteria do they have to fulfil to receive support from UNHCR?

As some 4 million people in Ukraine have been internally displaced, supporting their ability to live in safe and decent housing remains an important priority.

UNHCR is committed to further support the Government of Ukraine's activities in this area, in particular through the Prykhystok program, launched in March 2022 as an important and comprehensive social project to enable host families to provide free housing to internally displaced persons. In 2022, UNHCR provided financial support to 40,000 families, as well as website maintenance for the Prikhistok program.

In 2024, UNHCR expanded support to the Prychistok programme by a total of $15 million, under an agreement with the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories. Eligibility criteria for the programme are set by the Ministry, which also provides information on host families directly to UNHCR, which then makes financial support payments. Financial support payments to host families are made through bank transfers, so the money is paid directly into their accounts. The amount depends on how many IDPs they have accommodated and for how many days.

As of May this year, UNHCR has provided financial support to more than 200 thousand families who have accommodated IDPs under the Prykhystok programme implemented by the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.

You support the "Workshop on Wheels" initiative, which helps Ukrainians to repair their homes. Please tell us who can apply for such assistance, how many people have been helped, who have you involved in the initiative?

Through a new pilot project, Workshop on Wheels, UNHCR and NGO partner Rescue Angels are providing technical advice and helping war-affected communities to repair their homes that have been damaged by rocket attacks, drone strikes or other attacks. The initiative began in Kharkiv in January and has since been rolled out in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Assistance is being provided in all communities where UNHCR is implementing shelter repair programs. As of May 2024, 265 families have been supported through the initiative. UNHCR has helped replace just 1,000 windows and 1,000 m2 of roofing.

Mobile teams of experienced construction workers with the necessary tools such as screwdrivers, angle grinders, disc saws, etc. have been deployed to each region to help families who have already received building materials to rebuild their war-damaged homes. The teams help people from vulnerable groups such as the elderly, people with disabilities or female-headed families who are unable to repair their homes on their own.

The assistance is provided according to the programme requirements and only to those people who have already received building materials from UNHCR.

To receive assistance, you can contact the Yangoliv Salvation hotline 0 800 334 620 Monday to Friday from 08:00-17:00 or Saturday from 08:00-15:00; you can also do so by sending an email to hotline@charity-aos.com.

If a specific community in the above 5 regions is not covered by the program, you can contact the local authorities who will pass your request to UNHCR and Yangoli Salvation.

Despite the widespread destruction of Ukraine caused by the Russian Federation during the full-scale invasion, people and communities in the east, north and south of the country are looking for opportunities to rebuild and restore their homes and lives in the midst of war. They must be further supported and assisted to achieve this. Rebuilding and reconstruction must take place in tandem with the provision of humanitarian assistance as part of the emergency response. We cannot wait for peace to come.

The Workshop on Wheels project is being implemented in areas that are not directly on the front line, but somewhat distant from it, and are not directly shelled. However, if a house in the programme areas was repaired under this initiative and then damaged again, it is still possible to reapply for this assistance.

What other initiatives for IDPs could you tell us about? Which ones seem to you to be the most successful, and which ones have had to be radically reformatted for one reason or another?

We support internally displaced people in Ukraine, war-affected people, and people who are returning to their communities after leaving their own homes and staying in other regions of Ukraine or travelling abroad. UNHCR has provided assistance in the form of humanitarian and recovery programs to a total of: 4.3 million people in 2022; 2.63 million people in 2023; and in 2024 we have already provided various services and assistance to over 610,000 people as of today.

UNHCR is implementing the largest cash assistance program in Ukraine and has already provided various types of cash assistance since the beginning of the full-scale invasion to more than 2 million people, including IDPs, returnees, and other war-affected people. A total of $490 million has been provided. People can prioritise their most basic needs while supporting the local economy through such cash assistance.

UNHCR has repaired more than 29,000 houses since mid-2022, allowing families to stay and return to their homes. UNHCR is still the largest humanitarian organisation providing shelter assistance in frontline and severely affected regions. As of today, we have provided approximately a quarter of a million people with building materials to immediately repair their homes. We have supported 42,783 people in 2024 alone.

UNHCR and partners have provided IDPs, returnees and other war-affected people with more than 373,000 legal counselling sessions since 2022. This type of assistance is crucial for people who want to recover identity or property documents that were lost or damaged due to the war and that they need in order to receive services or payments.

At the beginning of the Russian invasion, the focus was on providing basic necessities, namely blankets, mattresses, kitchen sets and solar lamps. In addition, it was also important to improve living conditions in temporary accommodation for those who found shelter there. However, UNHCR, together with other UN agencies in Ukraine, is now actively implementing early recovery programmes, supporting communities with repairs to houses and social infrastructure. The entire UN system implemented $1.1 billion worth of early recovery and development programmes last year.

All types of assistance are extremely important for people who not only need to meet their immediate humanitarian needs but also "pave the way" to recovery.

Photо: UNHCRUkraine, NGO Proliska, Right to Protection