Highlights
• The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission noted a significant increase in ceasefire violations in Donetsk Oblast, including over 10,330 explosions, compared with around 2,500 in December 2016;
• Due to conflict escalation in late January, approximately 1.8 million people, including 252,000 children, on both sides of the ‘contact line,’ are at risk as critical civilian infrastructure (i.e. water, electricity, heating) was damaged;
• UNICEF is implementing immediate life-saving WASH support (i.e. bottled water, water trucking, hygiene kits, and water tanks) to be distributed to the most vulnerable people in Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
The security situation rapidly deteriorated at the end of January, with the number of affected people on both sides of the ‘contact line’ escalating from 17,000 to approximately 1.8 million in a matter of days.2 The rapidly deteriorating security situation in the triangle around Avdiivka (GCA), Yasynuvata and Donetsk (NGCA) is of great concern as numerous damages to critical civilian infrastructure, particularly electricity and water supply systems – on which centralised heating also depends – put 17,000 people, including 2,500 children, at risk in temperature as low as -17 degrees Celsius.