00:01Let's bring in Scott Craig, Senior Communications Officer at the International Federation of the Red Cross.
00:06Scott, thanks for being with us. The four-year anniversary of the conflict is next Tuesday.
00:10People are suffering night after night under Russian bombardment.
00:14Tell us, you're there. How are things?
00:26Good evening. Cut out a little bit there, but the situation here in Kyiv, four years into the conflict,
00:34is simply the worst it's ever been, I think, for many, if not most, people in Ukraine.
00:40It's been a bitterly cold winter, as you've been reporting on France 24 throughout.
00:47Relentless attacks on the country's energy infrastructure have really left people in the cold, in the dark, and really struggling.
00:57I arrived in Kyiv earlier in the week. The first thing that struck me was how dark it is in
01:03the city.
01:04You know, this is a city of three million people, at least.
01:13And we're seeing at the Red Cross the consequences of that.
01:18People are getting sick, as you would imagine. Health needs are skyrocketing. Mental health needs are skyrocketing.
01:26And, you know, in different parts of the country, humanitarian needs are different.
01:31Some are the same across the board. And some are unique in frontline areas.
01:39Shelter, people's homes have been destroyed and need to be reconstructed.
01:45And, yeah, I mean, I wish I could be more upbeat.
01:50But, you know, as I say, the situation on the ground, the humanitarian situation is the worst it's really ever
01:57been.
01:58We're coming up to the fourth anniversary, which is next Tuesday, Scott.
02:01Clearly, where you are in Kyiv, one would have thought at this stage there would be fewer strikes, but it's
02:09not the case.
02:10There are more and more Russian strikes aimed across the country on a nightly basis,
02:13which seems to escape most of the reporting of this conflict, which clearly isn't representing clearly what's happening.
02:21And with what you're doing on the ground, I'm wondering sort of what are the challenges that you are facing
02:26to make your effect, to change, to affect the change that you want to make that.
02:33Yeah, it's a good point, Mark. I think there's a there's a lot of challenges.
02:38One of the major challenges that we're facing at the moment is funding, actually.
02:43You know, we talk a lot in the humanitarian community and more broadly about resilience and the resilience of people.
02:52But the simple fact of the matter is resilience needs resources.
02:56And we're seeing that international support for humanitarian funding in Ukraine is dwindling, not just in Ukraine, but, of course,
03:06globally.
03:07But for the IFRC, we have a funding gap of about 260 million Swiss francs, about the same in euros.
03:16And so that is a big challenge.
03:18And, you know, on the ground, of course, the security environment is challenging.
03:26The heat and electricity is a challenge for humanitarian work.
03:31I mean, one of the things the Red Cross has been doing has been setting up heating points and food
03:37distribution points.
03:38We call them resilience hubs where people in the community can come and warm up, get a hot meal, charge
03:44their devices and so on.
03:46But, you know, it is a it is a pretty grim picture on the ground for people four years into
03:53this conflict.
03:54The power grid has been systematically targeted, systematically destroyed by the Russians.
04:00That kind of replacement of temporary power is incredibly difficult to get to everybody who's been affected.
04:09And whilst there is this narrative from Moscow that they are targeting just this infrastructure,
04:15the evidence is that it is civilians and residential areas more and more that are being hit.
04:21And I'm wondering how you cope with that with your organization.
04:25Can you help those people there?
04:27Getting to those people must be incredibly difficult.
04:31It absolutely is.
04:33I mean, the first thing I want to say about the energy crisis, the energy crisis is a human crisis,
04:40is a humanitarian crisis.
04:41An attack on the energy infrastructure destroys not only the energy infrastructure, but it creates enormous hardship and misery for
04:51people.
04:52One of the things that the IFRC has been doing is supplying generators across Kiev and other parts of Ukraine.
05:00You will hear a constant buzz in the background as generators kick into action when the power grid goes offline
05:07as it is offline for for the you know, they're rolling blackouts.
05:11So it's offline quite a lot.
05:12So we've been distributing generators.
05:14But of course, you know, as you're seeing on the screen there, this is a this is a common scene
05:19across the city, but we can't give generators to everybody.
05:23And so you can't run business as usual environments in a city of generators.
05:29This is why one of the things we've been doing are these hubs so that, you know, you can you
05:34can reach more people in a in a hub that has a generator where people can charge their devices.
05:40But there is no getting around the fact that the the energy crisis is a humanitarian crisis and that has
05:47a knock on effect on people's physical health, their mental health and the ability to be able to to reach
05:54people in need and really for daily life to be able to go on.
05:58I mean, it's it's interesting because, you know, as I said earlier, the first thing I noticed was how dark
06:04it was.
06:05The second thing I noticed was there were an awful lot of people, you know, going about trying to live
06:11their lives as as normally as they can.
06:14But the simple fact of the matter is, four years into this conflict, you know, the situation for for many
06:23people in Ukraine is harder than it's ever been.
06:26People are already starting to think about and to worry about how they're going to get through the next winter.
06:33And, you know, with the environment as it is and with the funding as it is, you know, we're really
06:40sounding the alarm about about that, too.
06:43And I also want to mention that, you know, for anybody watching who wonders, you know, what can I do?
06:49You know, we at the IFRC website, IFRC.org, you can donate to to the Ukraine appeal there.
06:58Anything can help.
07:01But we really urge donors, partners, governments to come forward and ensure that we're, you know, putting the putting our
07:11money where where our mouths are.
07:13And as I say, you know, resilience takes resources.
07:16And so four years into this conflict, we have to ensure that we're putting the resources in to help people
07:24in Ukraine who are facing a very desperate humanitarian situation.
07:29Message delivered loud and clear, Scott. Thank you very much, Adi, for joining us here in France 24.
07:34We appreciate your time. Stay safe, because clearly where you are is in the middle of a war zone.
07:39And we are reporting, as you say, on every development. But it's great to get the insight that you provided
07:44for us.
07:45Scott Craig, senior communications officer at the International Federation of the Red Cross, joining us live there from Kyiv in
07:51Ukraine.
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