On Saturday, fighting and bombing continued in Kiev and the rest of the country, especially in the east in Karkhiv, but also in the south in Mariupol, near Crimea. The bombing continues to increase the number of civilian casualties and damage to essential infrastructure. The OSCE stressed the detection of a high number of explosions due to the use of heavy weapons. In particular, the HCR denounced the use of a Russian ballistic missile carrying a cluster munition hit right next to a hospital in the Donetska region on February 24, killing 4 civilians and injuring 10 others.
Several organizations have also denounced the increase in cyber-attacks and underlined that the targeting of critical infrastructure can have devastating consequences on the civilian population. (See https://cyberpeaceinstitute.org/ukraine-timeline-of-cyberattacks).
The UNHRC stressed that more than 100,000 are displaced inside the country and that several thousand people have crossed international borders in the region, since the onset of the situation. Moreover, one other point of concern is the situation of elderly people, given that they are less likely to displace to safer or better-serviced areas.
The OHCHR is also aware of the multiple arbitrary arrests of demonstrators in Russia who were protesting against war yesterday as more than 1,800 protesters were arrested.
On the 24th of February the United Nations allocated US$20 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to immediately scale up life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection to civilians in Ukraine following the recent increase in hostilities.