Despite the escalation of hostilities in the Ukraine, a UK-based Christian charity continues to provide and support for the refugees, and is asking for more aid from the international community to meet the increasing number of evacuees fleeing from the fighting.
"The situation in Ukraine is escalating rapidly," Mission Without Borders' manager in Ukraine, Mykola Bohdanets, said in a press release. "Vital aid is very, very urgently needed. We must do all we can to prevent people freezing and starving in this crisis."
MWB have received more than 2,000 refugees from the Rivne region into their main refugee camp in Sarny, near war-torn Donetsk, in north-eastern Ukraine.
The charity is supporting the victims of the fighting as well as the refugees that enter their camps by providing emergency food aid as well as long-term emotional and spiritual support. The group is working in partnership with local churches in the Ukraine, like the Good News Church of Slovyansk, and the Evangelical Church in Krasnoarmiysk and Krasnohorivka.
Ukraine is currently locked in a prolonged conflict between government and Russian-backed separatists who wish to secede from the former member of the Soviet Union. According to Reuters, negotiations between the government and the separatists failed over the weekend and fighting resumed in eastern Ukraine by Sunday.
The rebels are concentrating their efforts on the strategic city of Debaltseve, a major transportation centre that is currently held by government forces.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe told Reuters that the separatists called for revisions of a 12-point protocol for a ceasefire that the parties had agreed upon in September. OSCE said that the rebels have no plans to discuss the ceasefire and withdrawal of weapons.
The rebels, however, denied the OSCE's claims and said through separatist news agency DAN that they are ready for dialogue, but they will not comply with an "ultimatum" from Kiev. The separatists also accused the government of continuing to shell civilian areas.
