Clearing the rubble after the attack on the Dnieper. INTERVIEW | Ukraine is under attack: from the scene – UNICEF employee in Dnieper Peace and Security
Among the civilians killed today as a result of large-scale shelling of Ukraine is an eight-year-old girl from Zaporozhye and a 62-year-old trolleybus driver. The UN Children’s Fund in Ukraine reports this with reference to local authorities.
Six schools that were supposed to open on April 1 were damaged. Maria Artanova, a UNICEF emergency response specialist who works in the organization’s office in Dnieper, told the UN News Service about this by telephone.
Maria Artamova: The morning turned out to be restless, since our office’s area of responsibility includes Zaporozhye, Dnieper, and Krivoy Rog. Unfortunately, this is where tragic events are taking place today.
First of all, I’ll probably start with Zaporozhye. There, a lot of buildings and a serious infrastructure facility were damaged, the Dnieper hydroelectric station, which is of extreme importance to us from a humanitarian point of view. A variety of negative scenarios are possible there. So far, thank God, according to local authorities there is no talk of a dam breaking. We want to wait for official information on the results of the rescue efforts to determine whether civilians were injured. At the moment we know of three victims.
As for Zaporozhye specifically, our partners have been working since early morning in several places where residential buildings came under fire, we are waiting for statistics on civilian casualties. Partners provide assistance in terms of vital resources such as drinking water, clothing, blankets, and hygiene items. In addition, we support the work of collective centers that accept people whose housing has been damaged.
According to unofficial information, six educational institutions were affected, schools that were going to open on April 1 for a mixed learning format. Therefore, we have yet to assess the real damage caused to the entire population and children in particular.
We are in touch with all affected locations. Krivoy Rog, part of the city of Dnepr and Pavlograd are experiencing difficulties, as light sources and electricity distribution have been damaged. Many hospitals are switching to power from generators, this, in particular, concerns Krivoy Rog. Therefore, we are keeping our finger on the pulse and waiting for feedback. In general, we have invested a lot of resources in creating capacity for medical and other institutions that provide services to families, in particular in Krivoy Rog.
Right now (when we were recording the interview) partners from Zaporozhye wrote to me that they would fly there again. Almost the blow fell on the same point as the first blow this morning. Our colleagues had to go to a bomb shelter and stop work for some time. I would like to say about our key partners who work in the front-line zones in Zaporozhye: national non-governmental organizations “Angels of Salvation” and Posmishka.ua.