Since Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Ukraine the last time in March 2017, a lot has changed — and also very little.
The country has witnessed a drastic shift in leadership. The new administration promised to bring peace to the Donbas and pushed for unlocking the stalled Minsk peace talks. But the war with the Russian-backed separatists is still simmering despite a fragile ceasefire, and the hardships of people on both sides of the 457-kilometer front line have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and measures imposed to curb it.
Maurer arrived in Kyiv this week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and the Parliament Speaker Dmytro Razumkov before heading to the Donbas.
He came at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a health and economic crisis of its own, further deepened humanitarian needs and dominated the political and media discourse. But Maurer wants to remind people that many other humanitarian issues in most vulnerable communities did not go away and still demand attention.
“The international community has to get out of the dangerous tunnel view in which every political discussion, all media attention is focused exclusively on COVID-19 and its impact,” Maurer said in an interview with the Kyiv Post in Kyiv on Nov. 3. “Deadlier and more serious humanitarian issues disappear from the agenda.”
The Donbas is not a forgotten conflict, yet it does not receive the attention it deserves, he said.
“The front line is still active, and its existence means humanitarian needs remain,” he said.
The fighting in the Donbas has subsided since the start of a ceasefire on July 27. Violations still occur, but their number and casualties have significantly dropped.
But crossing the contact line, which had already been arduous enough, has become even more difficult and precarious as checkpoints temporarily closed and reopened with restrictions due to the pandemic. This left thousands of people without access to their pensions, jobs, healthcare and families and dependent on humanitarian aid.
In early October, wildfires raged through Luhansk Oblast killing nine people, leaving over 700 families without homes and belongings and bringing further misery to residents of frontline villages. The ICRC facility at the Stanytsia Luhanska crossing checkpoint was also destroyed by flames, and the region’s only checkpoint was closed.
Mariinka and Novotroitske checkpoints in Donetsk Oblast currently operate with limited hours, but reports say that entry is being blocked on the separatists-occupied side.
Obstacles to the movement of people and goods across the contact line was one of the topics Maurer discussed with the Ukrainian leaders.
“Our relations with the Ukrainian authorities are very good and easy. But this does not mean the issues are easy,” he said.
Like any top official of an organization of the ICRC’s scale, Maurer is careful and formulaic in his statements and assessments. It is the neutrality and impartiality that allow the ICRC, one of the few international humanitarian organizations active in the Donbas, access to the hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the front line who are at the center of the organization’s response.
The ICRC has its 8th largest mission in Ukraine, with a 600-strong staff and an annual budget of 73 million Swiss francs.
In over six years of war, the ICRC continues to be a lifeline for the people of the war-torn region. It has provided them with cash, essential goods, coal for heating and grants for opening small businesses. It has rebuilt homes and fixed electricity and water infrastructure.
The organization has also played a vital role in coordinating prisoner exchanges, demining and searching for the missing.
According to Zelensky’s press service, he asked Maurer for assistance in obtaining a list of Ukrainians held by the Russian-backed militants. Earlier, Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said that the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk agreed that the ICRC would be able to visit Ukrainian detainees on the occupied side.
“Unfortunately, despite our efforts we do not have access to prisoners in Luhansk and Donetsk,” Maurer told the Kyiv Post.
Two new crossing points near the towns of Zolote and Shchastya are slated to open this month. It is not yet known whether the ICRC will have its first aid points and heating and cooling tents there, offering hot tea, water and a place to receive medical help.
“Both sides should agree that humanitarian activity has to happen,” Maurer said. “We certainly advocate for consensual humanitarian space.”
The president of the the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer speaks to the Kyiv Post on Nov. 3, 2020, in Kyiv. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
The COVID-19 crisis has added to the ICRC’s already full plate. It works with the most vulnerable communities around the world living in war and poverty or affected by climate change.
Lockdowns have hit the informal economy hard, leaving more people in need of humanitarian assistance. Movement restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the virus made it more difficult for people to access aid or for aid workers to deliver it.
“The discrepancy between the needs, which have been growing exponentially, and our ability to respond has dramatically increased,” said Maurer.
The ICRC, as a major global humanitarian organization, had to prioritize the areas of its humanitarian response relevant to fighting COVID-19, such as mask distribution or water supply and sanitation projects in detention facilities and refugee camps.
In the Donbas, for instance, ICRC supplied masks, protective gear, medical equipment and oxygen concentrators to primary care centers on both sides of the front line, and over 50,000 people regularly received food packages and hygiene supplies from the organization.
However, you can’t fight the pandemic through emergency measures alone, Maurer says. That’s why the ICRC has begun to invest more into strengthening healthcare systems, hospitals and clinics and working with health authorities.
While humanitarian needs have increased during the pandemic, fundraising for humanitarian organizations is becoming more difficult as the main donors — wealthy countries — divert funds to support their own economies and healthcare.
Although the ICRC is still well-funded, Maurer says this year has been harder financially than the previous years. With a total budget of 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion), the organization is short of over 100 million francs ($111 million).
“At this time, it is difficult to imagine generous increases to humanitarian funds,” Maurer says. “We have to find new donors, work more efficiently with the money we get and look for other sources of finance. All at the same time.”
