Kyiv: The powerful secretary of Russia’s Security Council said on Tuesday that Western and Ukrainian government policy was leading towards the break-up of Ukraine. The comments from Nikolai Patrushev amounted to a warning that Russia’s war in Ukraine could lead to a carve-up of the country, for which Moscow would seek to pin the blame on its opponents.
Meanwhile, the UN atomic watchdog chief on Tuesday described radiation levels at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site as “abnormal”, saying the area’s brief Russian occupation had been “very, very dangerous”.
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) is expecting some 8.3 million people to flee Ukraine this year, revising up its previous projection, a spokesperson said.
More than 12.7 million people have fled their homes in the past two months, including 7.7 million people displaced internally and more than 5 million who have fled over borders, UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told a U.N. news briefing.
citing the worsening sitaution, the UN has added more than double its aid appeal for the war-ravaged country. Over $2.25 billion is now required for needs inside Ukraine, more than double of the amount requested ($1.1 billion) when we launched the appeal on 1 March, a few days after the war began,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement