The United Nations has been unable to deliver any aid to Ukrainian territories beyond government-controlled areas since the start of the war, a representative of the UN said on Friday at a news briefing in Kyiv, about the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

Saviano Abreu from the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said that this week, Russia did not allow humanitarian organisations to cross the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region.

He added that the aid workers had to take shelter in a near-by village on Ukrainian-controlled territory as shelling started, despite both sides of the conflict being informed that aid workers were in the district.

Viktoriia Mykhalchuk, from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, told media that adequate steps were being taken to support Ukrainian farmers throughout harvesting, storing and exporting their grain.

⚡️Russia’s damage to Ukraine’s agriculture at $4-6 billion.

Viktoriia Mykhalchuk, of the UN food and agriculture agency, said damages include “infrastructure such as irrigation equipment, storage, shipping, and processing infrastructure, greenhouses, field crops, farm animals.”

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 29, 2022

Grain silage bags, machines for loading and unloading grain, and modular grain storage systems would be made available to Ukrainian farmers from 20 regions, Ms Mykhalchuk said.

The Joint Coordination Centre will enable the safe transportation, by merchant ships, of commercial foodstuffs and fertilizer from #Ukrainian ports in the #BlackSea: Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny. https://t.co/Zcmt7dpgc2

— UN Ukraine (@UN_Ukraine) July 28, 2022

A World Food Programme representative also added that attacks on Ukrainian energy resources and rising inflation were making it difficult for Ukrainians to prepare for a potentially harsh winter.