The Russo-Ukrainian War has entered its 2nd month. Russian troops reportedly began to change strategy by drastically reducing the intensity of offensive operations. However, attacks still occur in small towns in Ukraine, causing extensive damage to facilities and forcing 2.5 million civilians to flee.
Not only affecting Ukraine, the aggression launched by Russia under the leadership of Putin has also resulted in a number of global crises which the United Nations has assessed as the worst crisis since World War II.
The following is a complete list of humanitarian crises in the aftermath of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
Health crisis haunts babies to adults in Ukraine
In the midst of Russian bombardment blowing up a number of cities in Ukraine, thousands of residents distraught to find shelter. A number of people including babies, children and pregnant women were forced to take shelter in subway stations with minimal access to health care. This makes the health condition of Ukrainian people in danger of worsening.
Reporting from the Rescue-Uk.org page, as many as 80,000 women are expected to give birth in the next three months without knowing the follow-up care they will need, 43,000 babies born in underground stations require qualified medical services. Meanwhile, the polio and Covid-19 outbreaks that had been going on since before the Russian invasion were increasing, people living with HIV/AIDS had difficulty controlling their condition, and the main disease that often occurred in Ukraine, namely tuberculosis, did not receive optimal treatment.
Hunger Crisis in Yemen Worse
The war between Russia and Ukraine has hampered a number of production and export activities of Ukraine. Although conditions in Russia are relatively stable, a number of economic sanctions from western countries have also weighed on Russia's economic activities. Both countries are contributors of 28.9 percent of the world's wheat, the war between Ukraine and Russia caused the supply of wheat to importing countries to run low. This is bad news for the world's food conditions, especially for the millions of Yemenis who are already suffering from the food crisis.
Yasmin Faruki, a senior policy adviser with the humanitarian aid group Mercy Corps, explained on the VOA website that the slowdown in trade in Aden and Taiz is keeping people from getting money to buy food. In line with this news, the Seattle Times wrote that the possibility that the malnutrition crisis that had occurred due to the Covid-19 wave had increased from 8 million to 13 million people.
War Makes Ukrainians Depressed and Traumatized
Mental health is a factor of need that is rarely highlighted when discussing the effects of war. In fact, the psychological pressure experienced by the affected victims will imprint in and affect their lives in the long term.
The Russian attack, which Dr. Trina Helderman described as very sudden and unexpected, gave the residents its own gripping feel. He told CNN the story of one refugee who was surprised to receive an emergency evacuation call just as he was preparing dinner. Everything happened quickly, the sudden destruction of the city, the victims fell, the communication cut off to relatives and separation from family members, the men lived to fight to defend the country with full of uncertainty. Everything is full of unpreparedness and the phenomena that occur are still difficult for some people to digest.
Dr. John Roberts of the International Medical Corporation adds that the process of moving refugees to a safe place can even be very confusing and mentally draining. Facing all-limited conditions without preparation is not an easy thing to live. Therefore, he hopes that psychological assistance to restore the mentality of the Ukrainian people will also be a top priority.
So far, various international organizations have continued to seek the delivery of humanitarian aid in the form of logistics as well as medical and psychological personnel to restore the condition of the affected communities in Ukraine.