KYIV – The United Nations World Food Programme today called for unimpeded access to families trapped in conflict areas and encircled cities in Ukraine, saying lack of access was the biggest obstacle to its life-saving operations in the war-torn country.

“We’re calling on everyone to give us the access we need to reach the people in besieged cities,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said at the end of a three-day visit to Ukraine. “It’s one thing when people are suffering from the devastation of war. It’s another thing when they’re being starved to death.”

“I am shocked. The horror of war is so visible here and I shudder to think what these people have been through,” he said after walking through streets littered with unexploded mortar shells and visiting a bombed out orphanage. “But I see hope. I see a community working with energy to clean up and rebuild. We need to support that process.”