Donetsk, Aug 21 – DAN. The ICRC has established ties with a number of organizations and officials in some aspects of its work, including the issue of COVID-19, the head of the ICRC Mission to Donbass Florence Gillette told DAN in an exclusive interview.
"The pandemic has brought a series of new humanitarian challenges, here and all over the world. We have seen that conflict affected areas are facing specific challenges when trying to respond to the outbreak. Sometimes the measures that are required to control the outbreak have an economic and social impact that is the case everywhere. Balancing between taking the right measures and responding to the needs … we found a balance thanks to good cooperation with stakeholders and different structures, a way to find balance to continue the response to the conflict and the coronavirus. We all adapted our measures," she said.
Gillette arrived to Donbass on August 14 and held a number of meetings in a number of locations in the Republic concerning the operational issues.
"Mr. Pushilin whom I met a few times in the past was busy these days, I hope to meet him in the future," she said.
"We met Ms. Morozova to discuss missing persons. We are going to meet some people working on health to see how can we support them." One of the officials the ICRC met was the Minister of Health Alexander Oprischenko.*ot