HAMILTON, Canada

The UN voiced concerns Tuesday for Russia's attacks on railway infrastructure in eastern and southern Ukraine.

"We are extremely worried by what appears to be a new pattern of attacks on railway infrastructure in the east and south of Ukraine," Lisa Doughten, head of the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs Humanitarian Financing and Resource Mobilization Division, said at a Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

Doughten said the "attacks on Ukraine have only escalated further."

Saying that recent attacks in the Kharkiv region have not only caused death and injury to civilians, she noted that more than 7,000 civilians had been evacuated from border areas in the Kharkiv region, with many others cut off from vital services such as food, medical care, electricity and gas.

Noting the "intensified pattern of attacks on civilian infrastructure," she expressed alarm over the targeting of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, citing five waves of attacks since March 22.

"In addition, continuing attacks on Ukraine’s port infrastructure threaten their ability to export grain and other agricultural commodities at a time when the number of people facing acute food insecurity around the world continues to rise year after year," she said.

"Such attacks risk enflaming the war further and worsening its humanitarian impacts," she added.

Painting a grim picture of the toll exacted by the conflict in Ukraine, Doughten said, "It has caused immense suffering and left more than 14 million people, or 40% of the population, in need of humanitarian assistance."

She urged the Council to "seek an end to it."