Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis: OCHA Briefing on Civilian Impact and UN Response

Devastating Impact of Large-Scale Attacks

• ❄️ Large-scale attacks continue to push Ukraine's energy systems, emergency services, and winter survival means to the brink.
• 🌡️ Temperatures of minus 10 degrees Celsius and below exacerbate the crisis, with repeated strikes disrupting electricity, heating, and water supplies.
• 🏥 Healthcare workers and first responders are among the victims, with 11 attacks on healthcare facilities reported since the start of the year, resulting in deaths and injuries.

Cascading Failures and Civilian Hardship

• 🔌 Damaged substations, heating pipelines, and pumping stations trigger cascading failures that put lives at risk.
• 💧 In Kryvyi Rih, families are melting snow for washing and cooking, and heating water over candles due to prolonged power cuts.
• 🏠 Over 1,200 heated safe spaces and 68 additional heating points have been established in Kyiv to offer warmth and connectivity.

Evacuations and Humanitarian Access Challenges

• ⚠️ Continued hostilities and strikes on residential areas force evacuations from frontline communities, including a high proportion of vulnerable individuals.
• 🆘 Upon arrival in safer areas, evacuees have urgent needs for shelter, medical care, protection, and winter assistance.
• 🗺️ Humanitarian access remains constrained in some frontline areas due to active hostilities, damaged infrastructure, and security restrictions.
• ❓ Limited information is available about the needs of civilians in occupied parts of Ukraine.

UN Humanitarian Response and Appeals

• 🇺🇳 The 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan seeks $2.31 billion to assist 4.12 million people facing severe needs.
• 🎯 The response is sharply focused on those most at risk, particularly along the front line.
• ⚖️ International humanitarian law unequivocally states that civilians and civilian objects must be protected.
• 📢 The UN urges decisive action to ensure civilian protection, safe humanitarian access, and adequate funding for humanitarian action.
• 🤝 Civilians enduring these attacks need concrete action, not just statements of concern.