Director for Neighborhood the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) at the European Commission Andreas Papaconstantinou emphasizes that the humanitarian situation in Ukraine in areas close to the front line is very serious today.

“As I see it, the humanitarian situation is really serious in areas close to the front line. Russia continues to act in a way, and I think the Humanitarian Coordinator Ms Denise Brown has been always very vocal on this, totally against international humanitarian law. They're targeting civilians, a lot of people have been killed, and civilian infrastructure, school, and health facilities were destroyed. That's unacceptable. War has rules, we keep saying that. And the Russians ignore the rules of war,” Papaconstantinou said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

He stressed that the constant threat to civilian life, serious damage to housing, water and electricity supplies, energy attacks - all this causes an even greater need for humanitarian assistance.

“That's why the Ukrainian humanitarian needs and response plan shows that there are still a lot of people estimated to need assistance in 2024,” the EC representative said.