THIS WORLD HUMANITARIAN DAY LEAD THE WAY TO ALLOW UKRAINIANS SAFE EVACUATION OPENING ADDITIONAL HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS. #WorldHumanitarianDay #SecureHumanitarianCorridors

The war that the Russian Federation launched against Ukraine on February 24 is the greatest tragedy in Europe since the Second World War.

World Humanitarian Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe on August 19, 2022. Please call for an urgent ceasefire this World Humanitarian Day to allow more people to escape the conflict, find a safe place to call home, and ultimately save lives. The time to put words into action is now. We are bearing witness to a rare and tragic moment in the history of humankind. 

In Ukraine, especially in the City of Mariupol, people are suffering unimaginable pain and loss. Once a thriving metropolis, now called "Hell on Earth", Mariupol has seen the worst horrors of Russia's aggression. The invading troops have surrounded the city and attacked it relentlessly from the air, land, and the sea. More than 100,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, including children of all ages, subject to a medieval-like siege: No electricity, no gas, no running water, no heat, no food. Thousands have died. Hundreds of thousands more face catastrophe. Survivors have to dig themselves out of the rubble; their homes destroyed, their loved ones killed. 

Once a city of 400,000 people, Mariupol was almost entirely flattened by prolonged Russian bombardment. It is still under heavy shelling, with maybe 30 mins break a day a month later. Imagine being in a constant state of danger with zero information from the outside world? This situation takes a huge mental toll on all residents still there. As twin sisters Hanna and Anastasiya Hrechkina recalled, the shelling was so intense that when they were trying to drive out of the city, they had to abandon their belongings by the roadside and run for cover every 5-10 minutes. "I didn't want to die on the road' - Anastasiya said.

One six-year-old girl, Tanya, died of thirst after she became trapped under the rubble of her destroyed home. It is not known for how long the girl had been under the ruins of her home before she died. Her mother was also found dead at the scene. 'In the last minutes of her life, she was alone, exhausted, frightened and terribly thirsty,' Mayor Vadym Boychenko said. 'This is just one of the many stories of Mariupol, which has been surviving a blockade." 

Residents of Mariupol are being forcibly relocated to "filtration" camps in Russian territory. Four hundred two thousand people – including 84,000 children – have been deported. These deportations echo Russia's recent war in Chechnya when thousands of Chechens were brutally interrogated in makeshift camps. Many disappeared. For Ukrainians, these makeshift camps conjure the spectre of the hundreds of thousands of their countrymen and women murdered in the Holocaust. 

A 96-year-old veteran of Buchenwald, a former prisoner who went through four concentration camps, died in the shelling of Kharkiv. The scale of the devastation in Ukraine is unimaginable. It is growing and must be stopped - the time to act is now.

There are many examples of acts of bravery in Ukraine. Ukraine Police General Vyacheslav Abroskin offered himself as a hostage to evacuate children from Mariupol. With millions trying to escape Ukraine, some priests and sisters insist on staying behind to help those who cannot flee. Among them are the diocesan workers, volunteers, priests and religious of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese. Even the nuns are donating blood, and everybody knows that in remaining there, they are risking their lives. "We cannot be anywhere else." 

Ukrainians cannot do it alone. Your support for safe evacuation can shield thousands in Ukraine from Russian bombs and help them escape the violence destroying their country. Humanitarian corridors halt hostilities so that besieged populations who need to flee can do so along designated routes or allow urgent humanitarian aid to enter for those who remain. 

The number of civilians killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war is "thousands higher" than official figures, the head of the U.N.'s human rights monitoring mission in the country said. The official U.N. civilian death toll in Ukraine stands at 3,381, and 3,680 injured. At the same time, individual Ukrainian cities have published estimates that dwarf the U.N.'s figures — besieged Mariupol alone has estimated more than 20,000 civilian deaths.

Nearly 1.2 million Ukrainians, including 200,000 children, have been taken from their homes and deported to Russia. Thousands are being interned in "filtration" camps. These deportations and internments echo the worst atrocities of Europe's past and clearly constitute ethnic cleansing by the Russian state. Seven weeks of war in Ukraine has led to the displacement of 4.3 million children – more than half of the country's estimated 7.5 million child population, including more than 1.8 million children who have crossed into neighbouring countries as refugees and 2.5 million who are now internally displaced inside Ukraine. Of the 3.2 million children estimated to have remained in their homes, nearly half may be at risk of not having enough food, according to the latest statistics released by UNICEF.

According to the U.N., over 6 million people have fled Ukraine to date. Humanitarian corridors halt hostilities in combat zones so that besieged populations can escape the conflict along designated routes and allow urgent humanitarian aid to enter for those who remain. Humanitarian organizations find it almost impossible to deliver support, and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians need help to evacuate cities and towns under attack.

On March 26, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said an agreement on establishing ten humanitarian corridors had been reached, and they were able to evacuate 5210 people that day. Mariupol alone has over 100,000 people who need evacuation. Ten humanitarian corridors will not be enough to evacuate them, especially considering that many bridges, like those in Irpin and Chenihov, have been destroyed. We need your help evacuating hundreds of thousands of people. We are running out of time to save them! 

The savagery and scale of the violence require urgent action. 

Join us in our call for an urgent ceasefire and to open additional humanitarian corridors on World Humanitarian Day on your social media channels with #WorldHumanitarianDay. #SecureHumanitarianCorridorsNow, #PeaceIsTheWay.

Be the light in this darkness! 

Marina Korneeva, Tech Entrepreneur
Peter Tomlinson, Barrister & Solicitor, Writer
Sheri De Carlo, Writer & Communications Strategist

--------------------------------

Letters of Support

• Our church and congregation wholeheartedly support this active petition to give means for a safe evacuation of Ukrainian refugees. This is a just and great cause that needs to be brought to the forefront. We thank the organizers of this petition and pray for safe passage for the millions of displaced Ukrainians.

  This terrible unjust war has brought devastation and pain to the people of Ukraine and its diaspora. We vow to continue to help people in need and pray for peace and healing in Ukraine
  and abroad.

  God Bless the people of Ukraine and the many supporters and volunteers around the world.

  Sincerely,

  Pastor Oleksij Maksimishin

  Ukrainian Full Gospel Church (Toronto, Canada)
  View the letter
  
  
• As the pastor of the International Baptist Church, I wholeheartedly support the active petition to give safe passage for refugees from Ukrainian cities under siege by Russian military forces. This important cause needs the support of all who hold human life as precious and respected.
  
  

  My prayers and support are for those who are suffering and those striving to ease suffering.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  - Pastor Jeffrey Hinman
  The International Baptist Church of Düsseldorf, Germany
  View the letter