Mr. Matthew Morris:

I thank the committee for asking us to participate in the session this afternoon. Across Ukraine, people are in a truly desperate and often horrifying situation. So many people are in danger. They are in hiding or they are on the road, which means they are facing impossible choices on whether to stay or to leave. My colleague referred to some of the numbers, which are truly staggering. The United Nations estimates that 10 million people are on the move, 3.5 million of them outside the country.

The level of need varies across the country. We were talking in recent weeks to our colleagues in Mariupol in the south east of the country who described the situation there as apocalyptic. Our colleagues do not use words like that lightly. That was two weeks ago, and the situation has got much worse since then. They were telling us about having to use melted snow for water, going to streams to get water to drink or even having to drain radiators for water. That gives some indication of how desperate the situation was, with constant shelling all around them.

We have seen significant numbers of people on the move and significant levels of destruction. What we are seeing with urban warfare is neighbourhoods turned into battle zones. We know from our experience across the world in many other conflicts that when heavy weaponry like this is used in densely populated areas the results can be catastrophic for civilians.

Ukraine is classified as an international armed conflict. That means the Geneva Conventions and their First Additional Protocol apply. This is in keeping with international humanitarian law, IHL, and the laws of war, which aim to protect civilians and those not taking part in hostilities, as well as governing the conduct of hostilities. It is also important to note that any attacks carried out with new technologies or any cyber means are also subject to international humanitarian law, which must be respected.

The ICRC has been in Ukraine for eight years. At the start of the conflict, we had approximately 600 staff and we have added approximately 140 to that so far. Flexibility and adaptability are key, as we move the focus of our operations as events dictate. We work closely with our partners in the Ukrainian Red Cross. They have approximately 3,000 staff and volunteers, with 3,000 more volunteers signing up in recent weeks. They are working at scale. We are also working with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, our national society of Red Cross partners in the region and the Irish Red Cross, which the committee will hear from shortly.

Some moments of positive intervention that we have been able to do include, for example, helping to evacuate some civilians from the town of Sumy on two occasions. We have helped to distribute approximately 200 tonnes of medical and relief supplies, which has been sent to various locations in the country. It has not all gone to places in need. We are working around the clock to do that in a number of places. I mention these couple of examples as a drop in the ocean. They are not going to meet the staggering needs. As humanitarians, we need much more protected humanitarian space. There is talk of humanitarian corridors and anything like that is welcome, but we need to be able to allow people to leave from areas where there is fighting, whether there is a corridor or not, and we need to be able to get aid in at all times. That comes down to international humanitarian law.

The ICRC is engaging with the parties to this conflict on a confidential and bilateral basis. That is what we do to our remind them of their IHL obligations. We remind them publicly and privately. The president of the ICRC was in Kyiv last week to meet with senior government officials there and he will be in Moscow this week to hopefully do the same.

I will conclude by making three brief points. First, I thank the Irish Government and people of Ireland for their generous donations of €5 million towards our work in Ukraine, plus €1 million for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. That will support our vital work.

We encourage members to continue to promote the respect of international humanitarian law, as the people caught up in this conflict must be supported and protected.

Third, when it comes to sanctions, we would also encourage members to support our request to the EU for a humanitarian carve out, by which I mean some exemptions from sanctions so that we can carry on our crucial work unhindered.