Ambassadors were briefed by UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo, who pointed to the recent agreement on the safe resumption of grain exports via the Black Sea as a bright light in the conflict, though acknowledging the dim prospects for peace.
“The grain agreement is a sign that dialogue between the parties is possible in the search to ease human suffering,” said Ms. DiCarlo, officially the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
She added that the UN is making every effort to support implementation of the deal, which was signed last week in Türkiye.
Diplomatic efforts needed
The war’s impact globally is “glaringly clear”, said Ms. DiCarlo, noting that the consequences will only become more pronounced the longer fighting lasts, particularly with the onset of winter.
“Despite the encouraging developments on grain and fertilizers, we remain deeply concerned about the lack of prospects for a shift towards a meaningful resumption of diplomatic efforts to end the war,” she told the Council.
“Escalatory rhetoric from any side, including about expanding the conflict geographically or denying Ukraine’s statehood, is not consistent with the constructive spirit demonstrated in Istanbul.”
UNIC Ankara/Levent Kulu
Secretary-General António Guterres (left) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the signing ceremony of Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul, Türkiye..
Attacks continue unabated
Ms. DiCarlo said that since her last briefing in late June, deadly attacks by Russian forces have continued unabated, reducing many Ukrainian cities and towns to rubble.
The number of civilians killed, wounded, or maimed has also increased. As of Wednesday, there were 12,272 civilian casualties, including 5,237 deaths, according to the UN human rights office, OHCHR.
“This represents at least 1,641 new civilian casualties since my last briefing: 506 killed and 1,135 injured. These are figures based on verified incidents; the actual numbers are considerably higher,” she said.
Winter threat
Ms. DiCarlo also warned of reported efforts to alter administrative structures on the ground, including attempts to introduce local governing bodies in Russian-controlled areas, which raise serious concerns about the political implications of the war.
“As the conflict enters a more protracted phase, attention is increasingly turning to its longer-term humanitarian, recovery, reconstruction, and socio-economic impact. As summer wanes, the need for winterization planning is also becoming pressing,” she said.
“Regrettably, political dialogue has virtually ground to a halt, leaving people without the hope that peace will come anytime soon.”
UN agencies also continue to document damage and destruction to civilian infrastructure such as homes, schools and healthcare facilities.
The impact on the health sector is “particularly alarming”, she said, as there have been 414 attacks so far, resulting in 85 deaths and 100 injuries.
“This includes 350 attacks on facilities in areas of conflict, where on average around 316,000 patients were treated per month,” she said.
Assistance to millions
Since the start of the war, the UN and humanitarian partners have provided aid to some 11 million people, including in the form of food and livelihood assistance, protection services, mine clearance, and in accessing safe water and sanitation.
Nearly six million Ukrainian refugees have found shelter across Europe. Since the war began on 24 February, border crossings from Ukraine have totalled more than 9.5 million, while crossings to Ukraine numbered 3.8 million.
“We are concerned that winter will make it harder for the displaced or the returnee community to have access to shelter and health care,” said Ms. DiCarlo.
A twelve-year-old boy visits his mother in hospital for the first time since she was injured a month ago, by flying shrapnel.
Impacts on women
She also drew attention to the war’s specific impact on women and girls, particularly in areas such as food security and health.
Women’s access to health services, including sexual and reproductive health, is rapidly deteriorating, as is access to newborn and child healthcare. They are also now largely responsible for home-schooling, as access to education is severely hindered due to the constant threat of bombing.
“Further, women in Ukraine face significantly increased safety and protection risks,” she added.
“Incidents of gender-based violence, including allegations of sexual violence in conflict have increased, but services for survivors are not provided in full. It is also likely that many victims and survivors are currently unable to report their cases.”
Ms. DiCarlo stressed that it is especially for these reasons why women must be meaningful participants in discussions and initiatives to shape the future of the country, including peace negotiations, recovery efforts, peacebuilding and accountability efforts.
Hope for grain shipments
The top UN humanitarian official in Ukraine, Osnat Lubrani, was in the port city of Odessa on Friday, together with the country’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and ambassadors from G7 countries, according to her official Twitter account.
It was an honor to talk to @ZelenskyyUa about the ongoing, wide-ranging #UN support to Ukraine. As I end my assignment in Ukraine today, I know our efforts will continue to grow under the leadership of my successor, Denise Brown, who assumes her position tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/Utky9asVmh
This week saw the start of an operation under the grain exports deal, known as the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), which will monitor ships transporting grain, as well as related foodstuffs and fertilizers, from Odessa and two other ports along the Black Sea.
The JCC brings together representatives from Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and the UN.
Ms. Lubrani wrote that she was “very hopeful for the movements of ships to take place soon, taking much needed grain and related foodstuffs from Ukraine to countries that need them the most”.
She added that it was an honour to talk to President Zelenskyy and to reaffirm the UN’s ongoing support to Ukraine.
The visit took place on Ms. Lubrani’s final day as the UN’s Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine. Her successor, Denise Brown, will assume the post starting on Saturday.
Humanitarians call for greater access
The launch of the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) is an example of how the international community can affect change even amid the war in Ukraine, a UN humanitarian official said in the capital, Kyiv, on Friday.
Saviano Abreu of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, was among representatives from six UN agencies who briefed journalists on their ongoing operations to assist millions both within and outside Ukraine whose lives have been uprooted by the conflict.
“Although the world’s attention seems to be moving elsewhere, the situation in the country is far from any change,” he said.
While humanitarians have provided support to 11 million people so far, he said “we do know that it is not enough”.
Mr. Abreu reported that since the start of the Russian invasion, aid workers have not been able to send relief items to areas beyond the government’s control.
He underscored the obligation to allow free and safe humanitarian passage to all people in need.
“We saw this week that when there is a will, things can change”, said Mr. Abreu, referring to the JCC launch.
“Now we have to go one step further and make sure that no one is left behind also here in Ukraine. We need the parties to gently agree on humanitarian access to all regions of Ukraine, so we can save lives and alleviate the suffering of people who have endured these five months of war.”
Using a total of 27 cargo trucks, UNICEF was able to access the southern Ukrainian city and pre-position water purification equipment, sanitation and hygiene supplies, to prevent sickness due to lack of clean water and sanitation – a major threat to vulnerable families caught in war.
Around 110,000 people will benefit said UNICEF, from the filters and chemicals which were part of the aid delivery, along with hygiene kits which should help keep some 14,000 children healthy.
Rapid response
“UNICEF is delivering life-saving supplies to important areas including Odesa and surrounds, so we can quickly respond to the most vulnerable families who are affected by the ongoing fighting and shelling in eastern Ukraine,” said UNICEF Ukraine Representative Murat Sahin.
“Provision of safe water supplies and hygiene kits will help an estimated 50,000 children stay healthy in these challenging circumstances.”
As well as Odesa city, these supplies will be delivered to regions close to the fighting, including Mykolaiv, which has come under heavy shelling in recent weeks.
Helping the displaced
Additionally, the supplies will contribute to improving the living conditions of internally displaced families and children, many of whom have fled to Odesa from war-affected districts.
Yesterday we managed to deliver 50 tons of humanitarian supplies to the people in Stepnohirsk, Zaporizka oblast. Yet, since the start of the war, we haven’t been able to deliver life-saving aid to so many in non-Government-controlled areas. pic.twitter.com/bybyuRmayJ
Last Friday’s UN-brokered deal paving the way for Ukraine to begin exporting grain once more to markets in the developing world, will rely on being able to ship cereals out of Odesa’s main port, which has been under threat since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, and the mining of waterways around the coastal city.
So far, the city has been relatively unscathed compared with the near total destruction of Mariupol further to the east. But on Saturday, Russia launched cruise missile strikes, reportedly confirming on Sunday via a foreign ministry spokesperson, that it had been targeting military infrastructure in Odesa port.
More aid to Government-controlled areas
Amid continuing hopes that the first shipments of stranded grain could leave Ukraine’s Black Sea ports within days, 50 tons of different humanitarian supplies, initially destined for another hard-hit location, have been delivered to the severely affected Government-controlled settlement of Stepnohirsk.
Due to the ongoing hostilities, UN and humanitarian partners have been unable to deliver any assistance to non-Government-controlled areas since the start of the war.
In this instance, the town of Polohy, could not be reached, said a statement from UN humanitarians in Ukraine, issued on Monday night.
According to the Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Osnat Lubrani, medicine, food, blankets and supplies for children were delivered to Stepnohirsk and will also be sent to the neighbouring town of Prymorske.
About 5,000 people in urgent need will benefit from the items delivered.
Ms. Lubrani called on all the parties to the conflict to allow life-saving aid to reach those most in need.
“Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets. These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative”, António Guterres said in a statement published by his spokesperson.
In Instabul, Russian and Ukrainian Ministers signed on Friday the Black Sea Grain Initiative to resume Ukranian grain exports via the Black Sea amid the ongoing war. The agreement is meant to secure the transit of millions of tons of grain.
The Russian invasion, which began on 24 February, has sparked record food and fuel prices, as well as supply chain issues, with mountains of grain stocks stuck in silos.
According to media reports, at least six explosions were heard in Odesa on Saturday morning, and so far is unclear what the strikes were targeting and whether any grain infraestructure was hit.
ROME, Jul 20 (IPS) – Interview with Roberto Savio by Sebastián Do Rosario and Federico LarsenFor years, Russia’s relations with the European Union and the United States have been one of the main areas of conflict in the media. Washington and Brussels accuse Moscow of manipulation and disinformation and, after the invasion of Ukraine, decided to close their media outlets to Russian companies.
Excerpts from the Q&A:
Q: What do you think about the way this issue has been handled and what repercussions could it have on the management of the media, especially non-mainstream media such as Inter Press Service (IPS) or OtherNews?
A: Information has always been used by power, both economic and political. Information is, by definition, top-down. Whoever transmits it, whether in print form in newspapers and magazines, or in electronic form on radio and TV, sends it to an audience that cannot intervene in the process. That is why power has always tried to use it.
The Gutenberg era represented by this phenomenon lasted six centuries. Communication, which is a more recent phenomenon and which until now has only been possible with the Internet, is different. Communication is horizontal: I am a receiver, but I can also be a sender. There, power has much more power.
The media that provide information are closer and closer to power, they are no longer a business, and every year they are less and less powerful. And politics today is increasingly oriented towards social media. The most recent example was former US President Donald Trump, who had 80 million followers with Twitter (during his tenure at the White House) and completely gave up control of the media. (Trump was permanently banned from twitter in January 2021, right after he supported the attack on the capitol. So, Trump doesn’t actually have any twitter followers now.).
It must be added, however, that the Internet has been captured by the market, which has eliminated the horizontality we all hailed in the beginning. Today we have moved from the era of Gutenberg to the era of Zuckerberg, and we users are data, not people.
This is of great importance for young people, who today find themselves involved in vertically created turmoil, brought about by search engines, which divide users into affinity groups, thus eliminating dialogue, because when someone from part A meets someone from part B, they clash, end up insulting each other, without listening or sharing. And search engines, in order to keep the user, prioritise what generates the most impact, so that the strangest news ends up taking precedence.
The extreme polarisation of America would not have been possible without social media. Newspapers increasingly focus on events and abandon processes, and international relations cannot be understood without analysing the process in which events take place.
In Nairobi in 1973 there were 75 foreign correspondents; today there are three. No European TV has correspondents in Africa. It is therefore easy for a government to decide to expel correspondents, but it is almost impossible to shut down social networks, even if autocratic governments try to do so. That is why the Russian public knows little about the reality of the war.
But if someone is determined, they can always find a way to overcome censorship, even if it is a skill of the young, the old are not on the Internet and still rely on traditional media.
In Italy, the main daily newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, had the front page for forty days with a nine-column headline dedicated to Ukraine. This was followed by the first twenty pages, all dedicated to Ukraine. The rest of the world had disappeared. And the same happened with most of the European media.
Only with the French elections were newspapers forced to give significant space to Macron and not Zelensky. In this respect, representatives of the quality American press, such as the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, have been more balanced. Of course, the longer the war goes on, the more the repetition of events in the media becomes insufficient.
But the European press, like Europe itself, has sided with NATO, and with little argument. In Russia, of course, the press has been an amplifier for the government. The US media, for its part, often at odds with the government on domestic and national issues, tends to support the official foreign policy position. Factors such as national identity, nationalism and a lack of knowledge of international realities in newsrooms come into play.
It was surprising to see the European press become a megaphone of NATO positions. Putin was demonized as was Hitler, and Zelensky praised as a Greek hero. The Russians are portrayed as barbarians killing Minos. There has never been any negative news about Ukrainians, when in war violence and dereliction of ethics are inevitable and unfortunately widespread.
It is as if the Cold War has never ended, and we are ready to accept an escalation that can become scorching hot. GDP has contracted, the cost of living is rising, inflation is on the rise, and so far, there has been no reaction. This is really surprising.
For OtherNews, which is a news service on global issues, it was a very complex challenge. OtherNews represents a new design. The idea is that the non-profit association is owned by the readers, who can become members by paying a modest annual fee of 50 euros.
They elect the board of directors and discuss the editorial line, thus guaranteeing full independence and a pluralistic and inclusive line. There are 12,000 readers, in 82 countries around the world: academics, international civil servants, global civil society activists, etc.
Q: How would you define the role of the media in covering the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?
A: The war in Ukraine is exclusively an affair of the global North. The global South is only a victim of the increase in food, energy and transport. In Africa it has reached 45% of the population. Articles from the North were criticised by readers from the South and vice versa.
OtherNews lost almost 300 readers, almost all from the North, for publishing articles that criticised or questioned the war. I believe that this North-South divide will increase with the explosion of the multipolar world, as the values on which multilateralism was based are disappearing.
An ‘active non-alignment’ could be recreated, which the press in Europe and the US will struggle to understand. The West still believes it is the centre of the world, the United States in particular.
But today, mainly because of the need to prioritise national interests over international cooperation, a path opened by (former President Ronald) Reagan and (former British Prime Minister Margaret) Thatcher in 1981, we have moved from a multilateral to a multipolar world. In the Bush junior era, neo-conservatives preached the arrival of an American century, that the US should remain the dominant power. Since then, the US has lost in every conflict it has been involved in, from Iraq to Afghanistan.
And Trump took the logic of the end of multilateralism to the extreme, advising all countries to put their own interests first. Today the result is that the multipolar world is not based on the idea of international cooperation for peace and development, but on the most brutal competition.
And Biden now wants to revive multilateralism. But it is too late. Biden will lose the mid-term elections in November and become a lame duck, with a Congress of Trumpist Republicans vetoing everything. And in 2024 Trump is likely to return, and this whole NATO boom will go into deep crisis. But until November, if the war does not escalate and remain as it is, the European press will basically keep the war helmet on.
Q: After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the identity of the international blocs seems to have reconfigured: on the one hand, the United States and the European Union, which defend the liberal tradition, have drawn a very wide dividing line, at home and abroad, between ‘pro-Russian’ and ‘pro-democratic’; on the other hand, Russia, China and their allies are considered ‘illiberal’. What do you think of this construction and what can it lead to in the future?
A: This vision of a world divided into two blocs, China and Russia on one side and liberal democracies, Europe and the United States, on the other, is an easy illusion to see. In this multipolar world, countries stand alone.
A good example is Turkey, which is part of NATO, but does not participate in the embargo against Russia and is very close to China. Or India, which continues to buy Russian arms, is on China’s New Silk Road, but does not want any problems with the US. Indonesia, which has always been a loyal US ally, continues to maintain Putin’s participation in G20 despite US protests.
And also in Europe: Hungary and Poland are openly defying Brussels, splitting into a pro-NATO Poland and a pro-Russia Hungary. Saudi Arabia, Washington’s great ally, ignores Biden’s request to increase oil production, despite having been invited to the summit of democratic countries convened by Biden. This homogeneous bloc of liberal countries is a good marketing slogan, but it crumbles at the slightest analysis.
Q: How do you see the impact of US domestic political polarisation on the international scene? Why?
A: The Cold War was a confrontation between two political and ideological visions that clashed in a proxy war. America is no longer Kennedy’s America and it is no longer Obama’s America. It is a country where political polarisation has reached unprecedented extremes. In 1980, 12% of Democrats and 15% of Republicans told the Pew Institute that they would not want their daughter to marry a man of the other party. Today it is 91% of Democrats and 96% of Republicans.
And the US Supreme Court is already part of this polarisation. 72% of Republicans believe Trump was a victim of electoral fraud. And the crowd that stormed the Capitol is described by the Republican Party as a ‘display of political opinion’. Is this the exemplary leader of democracy’s fight against the world’s dictators? And we are only at the beginning of a process of radicalisation.
Right-wing states, with the endorsement of the Supreme Court, are banning abortion, reducing social protections, minority voting power and changing schoolbooks. With the return of Trump, or Trumpism, in two years the coexistence between the two camps will become even more difficult and few will see America as the beacon of the free world. And that won’t matter much to Trump either.
Q: What lessons do you see for Latin America, both politically and economically, after Donald Trump’s four years in office? And for Europe?
A: My opinion is that there will be great chaos in international relations, with a growing power struggle between the United States and China, with Russia, which we had the intelligence to push into Beijing’s arms. Of course, this struggle will be disguised as something political, but in reality, it will be a pure struggle for economic and military hegemony.
It is a fight that the US cannot win. And China is a self-referential country that has never left its borders and has built walls to keep the enemy out. While the US has exploited its soft power, its music, food, clothing, sports and lifestyle, China has little interest in this kind of imperialism.
I have been going to China since 1958 and have always been struck by how little they care to make a foreigner understand Chinese culture. But there are tens of thousands of Chinese students studying abroad, while the same cannot be said of Americans. The two countries are two big islands, which consider themselves surrounded by inferior nations.
Latin America has always been considered a second-rate region by the US, despite many declarations, and I doubt that China sees the region beyond its raw materials and Latin Americans beyond its buyers.
My opinion, especially in light of Trump’s experience, is that Latin America should adopt a policy of active non-alignment, declaring that it will not get involved in a proxy war that is not in its interest, and that it will do exactly what the multipolar dynamic advises: put its interests as a region first.
This would give it greater consideration and weight in international negotiations, and a clear advantage in a world divided by the New Cold War that is brewing. A war that, unlike the current NATO war against Russia, cannot be military, because it would mean the destruction of the planet. Of course, history and the present do not help to have great faith in the intelligence of power.
The big problem is that Latin America continues to be a continent divided by the inability to leave behind the experience of its ancestors. It is the most homogeneous region in the world, much more so than Asia and Africa, and in some ways more so than Europe and the United States, since the latter are experiencing a real disintegration.
However, the Latin American integration process has been an optical illusion. Latin America is a region of permanent political experimentation, which has stifled any economic logic due to the rivalry between successive presidents, between whom there is a constant change of compass.
I fear that instead of putting up a united front in the face of the next cold war, they will allow themselves to be bought off individually, convinced that they are doing what is best for their country. The only thing that can change the situation is a great popular movement. But this has always been directed at global issues, such as women or the environment, and of course at national issues: never at regional issues.
And in the press, the issue of integration has at best been relegated to its bureaucratic aspects, to the various bodies that have sprung up and failed in modern times. So, in my opinion, I don’t think we have learnt a real lesson from what has happened in the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall to express an inclusive regional policy, with a strong identity, and which places us as important players in the inter-national arena of this century.
Sebastián Do Rosario and Federico Larsen are researchers at the Institute for International Relations of Mar del Plata, Argentina. The interview was first published in the newsletter of the Institute.
With temperatures expected to remain above normal until the middle of next week, the World Metrological Organization (WMO) warned that heatwaves will occur more and more frequently, into the 2060s.
The pattern is linked to the observed warming of the planet that can be attributed to human activity, raising serious concerns for the planet’s future, the UN weather agency said.
Harvests at risk
“We are expecting to see major impacts on agriculture. During the previous heatwaves in Europe, we lost big parts of harvest. And under the current situation -we are already having the global food crisis because of the war in Ukraine – this heatwave is going to have a further negative impact on agricultural activities”, warned Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the WMO at a press conference to launch the latest extreme weather findings, in Geneva.
In several countries, some economic sectors – including tourism that has only begun to fully recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – are suffering as a result.
Further warming inevitable
“The negative trend in climate will continue at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation”, Mr. Taalas added.
“We have already lost the game concerning the melting of glaciers. We expect that the melting of glaciers will continue for the coming hundreds of years or even coming thousands of years…Sea level rise will continue for the same period”.
Mr. Taalas reflected growing concerns over extreme weather patterns, in his sartorial selection on Tuesday, he told journalists, choosing to wear short sleeves and a red and blue tie, in recognition of the increasing number of red alerts flashing up across Europe.
WMO briefed journalists that the European heatwave may not end, until the middle of next week.
Air pollution
The heatwave also acts as a kind of atmospheric lid, WHO explained, trapping pollutants, and degrading air quality, with adverse health consequences, particularly for vulnerable people such as the elderly. In the major 2003 heatwave in Europe, some 70,000 people died.
“Climate change is affecting our health in many ways, not only by heatwaves which are having direct consequences” but also other areas of essential healthcare, such as rising levels of disease, alerted Maria Neira, Director for public and environmental health at WHO.
She explained that reliable access to food and water is at stake, as with agricultural production levels at risk”, and there will be water scarcity for sure”.
She said that 99% of the global population is breathing air that does not meet the health standards set by WHO, hugely impacting chronic respiratory and cardiovascular conditions.
Ambition is key
“The best solution to this will be, again, being very ambitious on tackling the causes of this global warming.
“We have been alerting for a long time that climate change is affecting very much human health”, she emphasized, which will also impact the struggle to reach net zero carbon emissions, and the crucial transition to clean, renewable sources of energy.
More deaths among the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions are feared due to the ongoing heatwave in the weeks ahead, and subsequent challenges to health systems, to keep up with rising demand.
Cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea struck civilian areas of the city, including an office block and residential buildings, according to media reports, citing Ukrainian authorities.
Dozens of civilians have been killed in Ukraine over the last 24 hours.
Multiplying attacks against civilian infrastructure are leaving millions without access to basic services, including water and electricity.
“The Secretary-General condemns any attacks against civilians or civilian infrastructure and reiterates his call for accountability for such violations,” the statement said.
Millions without basic services
UN humanitarians report that in the past 24 hours, strikes have resulted in casualties and damaged civilian infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and in several parts of Donetska region, located in the east.
Hostilities have destroyed more critical infrastructure, leaving millions overall without access to health services, water, electricity and gas supplies, UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told journalists in New York.
“In Mariupol, people have limited access to drinking water, with only five litres per person every week, according to Ukrainian authorities,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the high risk of cholera in the city, although no cases have been reported so far.
Across Ukraine, nearly 800 settlements have no electricity, and more than 230,000 families, businesses and others, have no gas supplies. The Donetsk region, or oblast, is the worst affected, according to authorities.
UN agencies continue to support people across Ukraine, and those who have fled the country, in the wake of the Russian invasion which began on 24 February.
Infosys on Wednesday said it will acquire Denmark-based BASE life science for EUR 110 million (nearly Rs. 900 crore) in an all-cash deal.
The acquisition will deepen Infosys‘ expertise in life sciences domain as well as strengthen its footprint across Europe.
“This acquisition augments Infosys’ deep life sciences expertise, and expands our footprint further in the Nordics region and across Europe, and scales our digital transformation capabilities with cloud-based industry solutions.
“We are excited to welcome BASE life science and its leadership team into the Infosys family,” Infosys president Ravi Kumar S said.
The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of current fiscal.
BASE brings to Infosys, domain experts with commercial, medical, digital marketing, clinical, regulatory, and quality knowhow.
“Backed by a team of data science specialists, BASE is at the frontier of the latest technological developments and trends. It has a strong focus on Data & AI, and the ability to bridge and integrate business logic and technology, driving insights for better health outcomes.
“The company has about 200 of the finest, multidisciplinary industry experts across Denmark, Switzerland, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and a nearshore technology hub in Spain,” the filing said.
Together with Infosys, BASE will further expand its portfolio of expertise into Consumer Health, Animal Health, MedTech and Genomics segments.
“With Infosys as our catalyst, we will be able to accelerate our expansion internationally and create development opportunities for our people,” BASE life science CEO Martin Woergaard said.
In May this year, Infosys joined the corporate boycott of Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, saying it would move its business out of the country and pursue alternate options.
The move aligns India’s No. 2 software services firm with several global peers such as Oracle and SAP SE and was disclosed alongside a strong earnings report.
Speaking to media at its Bengaluru headquarters, Infosys said it expected annual revenue growth of 13 percent to 15 percent in constant-currency terms as it wins more contracts from global businesses expanding their digital presence.
More than four and half months since Russia’s invasion, civilians have continued to be targeted in explosions and missile strikes, particularly in eastern cities including Donetsk, Sloviansk, Makiivka, Oleksandrivka and Yasynuvata, but also in southern oblasts, in Odessa and Mykolaiv.
Senior UN officials have long called for humanitarian corridors to be established to enable the safe and constant delivery of assistance to extremely vulnerable populations in Ukraine. But OCHA, the UN aid coordination wing, has frequently signalled that access in many places remains too dangerous or is blocked.
Corridor call
“I am sure that once there will be corridors, we will be there,” said Dr. Nitzan, speaking via video link in Odessa to journalists in Geneva. “So, the fact that there are no corridors speaks to itself, surely all of us, asking in (a) different form, please, let us in.”
The perilous situation continues to hamper lifesaving aid operations, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which described how medical services in many places were now “seriously stretched”.
At a hospital in western Ukraine, doctors managed to remove a four-centimetre-long fragment of shrapnel and save a 13-year-old boy’s life after he was seriously wounded by shelling in eastern Ukraine.
Highly vulnerable
Speaking from Odessa, Dr Dorit Nitzan, WHO Ukraine Crisis Incident Manager, warned that others in need of immediate help included those with chronic but preventable illnesses.
“The people who have not been able to receive early diagnosis and treatment for cancer, who now have much more advanced tumours and more critical illness,” she said. “People who have not been able to receive medications for hypertension and now have failing hearts or have suffered strokes. Diabetics who could not get treatment and whose disease is now severe.”
NGOs’ vital role
Dr Nitzan highlighted the crucial role played by the authorities, non-profit organizations and volunteers in delivering medicines and relief items on behalf of the WHO, when it is unable to secure an agreement to do so itself.
“We do not have ourselves access to all areas,” she continued. “Many areas are under fire, under attack, as I said we were supposed to go to Mykolaiv this morning, we are waiting for security clearances was okay last night but today it’s different, so things are changing.”
Nonetheless, WHO experts still need access to patients to assess their needs, give advice and assistance, the WHO official insisted.
“People have been disabled in all kinds of ways,” Dr Nitzan continued, pointing to those whose hearing or eyesight have been damaged in shelling attacks and others who have suffered burns or had to have their limbs amputated after stepping on a landmine.
“If we cannot come with the experts to the hospitals, to the people, to those in need, we really cannot do the best of jobs,” she said. “So, what we are asking is to have humanitarian corridors to allow us to step in and to care for those in need.”
A mother and her eleven-year-old twins were one of the many caught up in the tragedy at Kramatorsk railway station in Ukraine when a missile hit and injured hundreds who were fleeing conflict.
Mental trauma
In addition to addressing people’s immediate physical health needs, the WHO noted her serious concerns about the mental trauma of the war and the “fear, grief and uncertainty” it has created.
According to OCHA’s latest humanitarian update, while east Ukraine accounts for most of the active warfare, more missile attacks and casualties were reported in the last week in several other regions.
These include eastern Kharkiv and western Khmelnytski oblasts, where civilians and civilian infrastructure have been impacted heavily.
Communities in both the south and the east are facing rising food insecurity, particularly where intense fighting has left them cut off from supply lines, warned Thomson Phiri from the UN World Food Programme (WFP).
“One in three families in Ukraine is food insecure, rising to one in two in the east and south,” said Mr. Phiri, who added that WFP food or cash distributions had reached 2.6 million people last month.
Latest estimates from the Ukrainian Government indicate that 25,000 kilometres of roads and more than 300 bridges have been damaged or destroyed since 24 February.
Other critical infrastructure across the country has also been hit, amounting to $95 billion in damage.
Since the Russian invasion on 24 February, more than 11.5 million people have had to flee their homes in Ukraine, and some 6.3 million are internally displaced.
Speaking from bomb-shattered ruins in Irpin and Bucha near the capital Kyiv, UNHCR High Commissioner, Filippo Grandi warned that winter was only around the corner: “And winters in Ukraine are very harsh and severe, extremely cold. So, we must do everything possible to prevent the cold of winter from becoming the next challenge for people that already have to face so much in their lives.”
Homes broken, families split
In the rubble of Irpin, the result of Russian shelling (and as reports from Eastern Ukraine brought news of fresh destruction), we also saw people repairing, fixing, clearing.
Solidarity with the people of Ukraine remains vital and must continue, especially as winter approaches. pic.twitter.com/FhEp1v3DML
The UN refugee agency warned that people are struggling to rebuild their damaged homes, reunite with their families and recover from the trauma of more than four months of war.
They are also in urgent need of financial assistance, having lost their jobs and incomes, while the price of essentials continues to rise, along with fuel shortages.
While acknowledging the major challenges facing the people inside Ukraine, Mr. Grandi also highlighted the anxiety of separation felt by so many, “of being in exile, either in the country itself and …as refugees abroad”.
Reslience and aid for millions
But after meeting and talking to some of those affected by the war, the High Commissioner also insisted that he had seen “lots of strength, resilience and determination to carry on, to recover, to rebuild here in this very building that appears so damaged, people are already working to fix it, to make it habitable again.”
According to the UN humanitarian coordination office in Ukraine, OCHA, 15.7 million people have been affected by the war and need support now, and two-thirds of them have been reached so far.
Ongoing fighting and “impediments” imposed by the warring parties have continued to seriously hamper or make impossible the delivery of assistance to the hardest-hit areas, particularly in government and non-government-controlled areas of Luhansk oblast, or region.
The insecurity has also made it extremely dangerous for civilians trying to evacuate from areas where there is active fighting.
Electricity still cut
Critical locations of concern in Luhansk include Kherson, Sievierodonetsk among others, while people in Mariupol have received very limited support from local actors operating in areas outside Government control in the Donetsk region.
“Access to water and healthcare there remains worryingly limited”, noted OCHA’s assessment. “Lack of access to electricity remains at an alarming level: more than 625,000 users, including families, businesses and public institutions in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, have not had electricity for weeks on end.”
OCHA’s latest update on the war indicated that 60 per cent of people forced to leave their homes have been displaced from the east, 15 per cent from the north, 11 per cent from the south and another 11 per cent from the capital.
The oblasts of Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkivsk, Kyiv, Poltava and the city of Kyiv continue to host most displaced people.
In his video message to some 40 country representatives meeting in Lugano, the Secretary-General highlighted the tragic human impact of the conflict, as well as the long-term challenges that lie ahead:
“Russia’s war in Ukraine has taken thousands of lives and forcibly displaced millions of people”, the UN chief said. Millions of Ukrainians have lost their livelihoods risk of falling into poverty. The damage and devastation to homes, hospitals schools will take years to rebuild…This is a long road, but it must start now.”
In addition to the UN, international financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank attended the meeting.
On the agenda, projects to promote climate protection, the digital economy and the diversification of energy sources.
FAO aids Ukraine farmers
The development comes as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched a bid to help Ukrainian farmers save their summer harvest later this month.
The $17 million project, funded by Japan, also aims to support the export of grain to unnamed “alternative” international markets, while also strengthening food security for countries that are dependent on importing Ukrainian cereals, vegetable oil and other commodities.
It involves restoring storage silos for Ukraine’s grain, and also ensuring that the country’s farmers have the tools they need to work in future, FAO said in a statement.
“Ukraine’s farmers are feeding themselves, their communities and millions more people around the world. Ensuring they can continue production, safely store and access alternative markets to sell their produce is vital to secure food availability, protect livelihoods, strengthen food security within Ukraine and ensure other import-dependent countries have a steady and sufficient supply of grain at a manageable cost,” said Rein Paulsen, Director of the FAO Office of Emergencies and Resilience.
Human Rights Council spotlight
Large numbers of civilian casualties and massive destruction to civilian infrastructure caused by the Russian military – and on a much smaller scale by Ukrainian armed forces – are not in compliance with International Humanitarian Law, said UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in a report presented on Tuesday at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The report examines the human rights situation in Ukraine from the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February to 15 May.
The findings are based on information gathered by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine during 11 field visits, visits to 3 places of detention, and 517 interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights violations, as well as other sources of information.
Apartment buildings are destroyed after shelling in Obolon district, in Kyiv, Ukraine.
No access to occupied territory
“While we have yet to be provided with access to territory occupied by Russian armed forces, we document violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law (IHL) committed by all parties, and we remain fully committed to monitoring the human rights situation across the entire territory of Ukraine”,said the UN High Commissioner.
As of 3 July, OHCHR has documented over 10,000 civilian deaths or injuries across Ukraine, with 335 children among the 4,889 documented as killed. However, the actual figures are likely to be much higher.
“Most of the documented civilian casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons in populated areas”, said Ms. Bachelet “Shelling from heavy artillery, such as multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, including weapons that can carry cluster munitions, were used repeatedly”.
The mass displacement of the civilian population – including over 8 million within the country – has had a disproportionate impact on women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities.
“Concerns persist about unlawful killings, including summary executions”,Ms Bachelet said. “Growing evidence gives my Office reasonable grounds to believe that serious violations of International Humanitarian Law in this regard have been committed by Russian armed forces”.
OHCHR is working to corroborate over 300 allegations of killings by Russian armed forces in situations that were not linked to active fighting.
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