Ukrainian conflict displaces 824,000

GENEVA, Friday

The conflict in Ukraine has driven more than 824,000 people from their homes, the UN refugee agency said on Friday, warning that it was having to scramble aid to offset the impact of winter.

At least 430,000 people had been displaced within Ukraine as of Thursday, UNHCR said, 170,000 more than at the start of September.

“With the crisis in Ukraine entering its first winter, UNHCR is racing to help some of the most vulnerable displaced people cope with expected harsh winter conditions,” the UN agency said.

“Ongoing fighting in the east, and the resulting breakdown of basic services, continue to drive more people from their homes,” it added.

Around 95 per cent of the displaced people are from conflict-torn eastern Ukraine.

UNHCR said that the need for humanitarian aid was greatest around Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kiev and in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions.

In addition to those displaced within Ukraine, another 387,000 have fled to Russia, while 6,600 have applied for asylum in the European Union and 581 in Belarus, UNHCR said.

At the same time, Ukraine wrapped up campaigning on Friday for a weekend vote that will dramatically reshape parliament after a year of upheavals, as the deadly conflict with pro-Russian rebels drags on into its seventh month.

SNAP POLL

Sunday’s snap poll was called by President Petro Poroshenko in August with the aim of purging parliament of corrupt lawmakers tied to the old regime of Viktor Yanukovych, ousted in February after a wave of bloody protests.

While Poroshenko may succeed in creating a pro-Western coalition in parliament, he is falling short of his other aim of bringing the separatist regions back to Kiev’s orbit.

Ukraine had 36.5 million voters, but lost about 1.8 million after Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in March.

Close to three million others live in separatist-controlled areas of Lugansk and Donetsk regions, where insurgent leaders are boycotting the polls and holding their own votes a week later.

Kiev has nevertheless vowed to organise polling stations in government-controlled areas of the rebellious east, with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk promising to ensure security on election day.

“It’s difficult to hold elections in a country that has seen military aggression from Russia,” Yatsenyuk said on Thursday, warning that anyone seeking to disrupt the process will be punished.

“The choice should be made not with a gun but with a ballot,” he added.

Poroshenko said on Thursday he hoped to be able to form a pro-European coalition in parliament to enact all needed reforms and rebuild Ukraine’s economy despite the insurgency in the country’s coal and steel belt.