Ukraine facing humanitarian crisis, needs food and medicines, minister says
Ukraine is facing a humanitarian crisis and urgently needs supplies of food and medicine to be brought into the country, the country's economy minister said on March 12.
"We don’t have weeks or months," Yulia Svyrydenko said at Poland's Przemysl train station, one of the main ports of entry for people fleeing Russia's invasion. "We need this assistance right now."
Ukrainian officials said on Saturday heavy shelling and threats of Russian air attacks were endangering attempted evacuations of desperate civilians from encircled towns and cities elsewhere.
Svyrydenko called for tougher sanctions on Russia, which says it is conducting a "special military operation" to disarm its neighbour and dislodge its "neo-Nazi" leaders.
Kyiv and its Western allies say this is a baseless pretext to invade a country of 44 million people.
Nearly 2.6 million people, mostly women, and children have fled to neighbouring countries since the fighting began.
Svyrydenko said she and her delegation wanted to assure Ukrainians who had fled to Poland that the government was doing everything to make sure they could return home as soon as possible.
