The attacks occurred in the city’s Novobovarskyi district late on Thursday. At least three people were killed and a further 16 injured, according to media reports.

The repeated missile strikes caused significant damage to residential buildings.  They also affected rescue workers rushing to the scene.

In a statement issued on Friday, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown extended her deepest condolences “to the families impacted by the non-stop attacks by the Russian Federation’s Armed Forces.” 

Humanitarian response hampered 

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has come under relentless shelling in recent weeks. UN agencies have been assisting in evacuating people from other areas of the wider Kharkiv region that have come under attack.

Ms. Brown said the escalation of hostilities in Kharkiv and elsewhere in Ukraine continues to devastate the lives of families, making humanitarian response efforts even more critical and difficult.

“International humanitarian law strictly prohibits attacks on civilians or civilian infrastructure,” she said.  

“Living in fear of air strikes at home, at work or while shopping is not normal.”

Violations against children 

Ms. Brown heads the UN Office in Ukraine which issued a separate statement on Friday condemning the severe violations of children’s rights in the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. 

Heavy hostilities continue to inflict immense physical, psychological, and emotional harm on children, disrupting their lives and jeopardizing their future. 

“The most recent wave of Russian attacks in the Kharkiv Region underscores the dreadful cost of the war, and the horrors that the children of Ukraine are facing,” Ms. Brown said.  

“Many have been killed or injured, and thousands forced to flee from their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the profound stress from having witnessed a truly terrifying situation.” 

Young lives ended 

Over 600 children have been killed, and more than 1,420 injured, since the escalation, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR, though the actual toll is likely much higher. 

The statement said children spend countless hours in bomb shelters due to indiscriminate attacks. Boys and girls in frontline communities have spent between 3,000 and 5,000 hours underground – equivalent to four to seven months – making their lives stressful and extremely difficult. 

Forced displacement further compounds dangers they face, including separation from their families and increased risks of trafficking, exploitation and abuse.

Education and healthcare disrupted 

The war has also severely affected education, and many schools have adopted online or underground classes. The UN Office in Ukraine expressed particular concern over the situation of children in frontline regions.  

Currently, nearly a million boys and girls – a quarter of all Ukrainian children enrolled in school – have been unable to attend in-person learning, particularly those with disabilities and special educational needs. 

Children’s health is another casualty of the war.  Damage to health facilities, together with the displacement of personnel, mean that access to healthcare services is limited.  

The statement noted that displaced families and those living close to the front line struggle to obtain necessary medical care, particularly for pregnant women and newborns, while vaccination campaigns have been disrupted, thus increasing the risk of outbreaks of some preventable diseases. 

Commitment to deliver 

The UN and partners in Ukraine are working to assist the country’s children, the statement concluded.  

Last year, the UN provided vital primary healthcare to more than 5.1 million children and mothers, and education services to more than 2.5 million students and teachers.  

Ms. Brown underlined the UN’s commitment to support the people of Ukraine but noted that “no amount of aid will bring back what a generation of children is losing because of Russia’s invasion.” 

The international airport had been closed due to rampant gang violence in the country.

The flight carried nearly 15 metric tonnes of medicine and medical supplies to be added to the resources of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Mr. Dujarric said this will “support critical, lifesaving operations as insecurity continues to restrict people’s access to healthcare, mainly in the metropolitan area of the capital Port-au-Prince and in the Artibonite department.” 

Funding shortfall 

The Secretary-General’s spokesperson said that local non-governmental organizations along with WHO are providing many services to displaced civilians, including “screening for malnutrition, cholera prevention and as well as psychosocial support.”

Mr. Dujarric said he hopes that the gradual opening of the airport in Haiti will allow more supplies to be transported; he said that donor support is needed.

A humanitarian response plan for the country requires $674 million but only 21 per cent of the funds – $142 million – has been received, he added.

Multinational Security Support 

Meanwhile, UNICEF is warning about child recruitment by armed groups in Haiti, the Secretary-General’s spokesperson said.

Reportedly, 30 to 50 per cent of members of armed groups are children, subjecting them to “coercion, abuse and exploitation stemming from persistent social, economic and political fragility caused by the ongoing violence that has spiralled parts of the country into chaos.” 

The Haitian Ministries of Justice, Education and Labor and Social Affairs are working to facilitate the reintegration of young people who had previously belonged to armed groups in hopes this will safeguard their well-being.

Mr. Dujarric said that UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for the prompt deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti to assist local police in addressing security situations.

He said that Mr. Guterres calls on Member States to ensure the MSS is financially and logistically supported appropriately.

Mr. Dujarric said children being a part of armed groups in Haiti gives reason to quickly deploy the MSS. 

Matthew Hollingsworth, WFP Country Director in Palestine, warned that with limited access to the south “we will no doubt see what we saw happen in the north in the first months of the war”.

Mr. Hollingsworth recently spent 10 days in Gaza.  Speaking from Jerusalem, he told journalists in New York that people in the enclave “really are at their wits’ end”.

A horrific ‘exodus’

He said the “exodus” from Rafah over the past 20 days “has been an awesome and horrific experience for many, many people.” Most have been displaced several times over and had thought they would be staying in a safe area for the remainder of the war.

They have fled to areas where clean water, medical supplies and support are insufficient, food supply is limited, and telecommunications have stopped.

“Public health concerns are beyond crisis levels” and “the sounds, the smells, the everyday life, are horrific and apocalyptic”, he said

 “People sleep to the sounds of bombing, they sleep to the sounds of drones, they sleep to the sounds of war as now tanks roll into parts of central Rafah, which is only kilometres away. And they wake to the same sounds.”

Immense needs

Meanwhile, humanitarians have seen ever-decreasing amounts of assistance coming in, and WFP bakeries in Rafah have closed due to lack of fuel and supplies.

He said that from 7 to 20 May, “not a single WFP truck crossed from the southern corridors from Egypt into Rafah”. 

The UN agency has been unable to access its main warehouse in the south because it was in an evacuation zone, and the 2,700 tonnes of food inside were either looted or destroyed in the fighting.

“We are living and working precariously in the south,” he said, adding that some aid partners are able to provide hot meals in Rafah.

“We serve around 27,000 people right now, but that’s not enough in Rafah itself, and we’re trying desperately hard to gear up to support people in the central areas, in Al Mawasi in particular, where almost a million people have fled to in this great exodus.”

WFP and partners are able to provide roughly 400,000 hot meals a day to people in the Middle Area of Gaza, but again supplies are limited.

Situation in the north

Mr. Hollingsworth also addressed the situation in north Gaza, which he said has improved following the opening of two crossings. UN agencies had previously warned of looming famine in the region.

“We’re actually seeing the results of what can happen when there is a will to enable sufficient levels of aid,” he said.

Roughly 12,000 tonnes of inter-agency aid, mostly food, have entered since 1 May, “and the north looks very different because of it.”

The WFP official stressed the need for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages, noting that previous calls have gone unheard.

“We are tired. People are tired. We desperately need to start helping people go beyond this day-to-day existence and scraping for an existence,” he said. “And to do that, there has to be a ceasefire.”