The United Nations’ top aid official in Ukraine expressed concern on Friday about the “continuous attacks” on energy production sites and distribution facilities. The heavy humanitarian and psychological toll of these Russian strikes is compounded by the expectation that this winter will be much colder than last year and that the rate of destruction of energy infrastructure may exceed the recovery rate.
“We are very worried about people living in high-rise buildings in cities near the front line – that could turn into a major crisis,” said Matthias Schmale, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, to reporters in Geneva.
Schmale's comments came a day after Russia reportedly attacked critical energy infrastructure in civilian areas across Ukraine. With 705 munitions deployed, the attack was one of the largest on Ukraine since February 2022. Explosions occurred in multiple regions, including Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Vinnytsia.
Winter Crisis Risk
If people in frontline cities like Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv or Dnipro in high-rise apartment buildings are “stuck without electricity or safe water for days on end” during a harsh winter, Schmale explained, then “there is no way that with the available resources we would be able to respond to a major crisis within a crisis.”
“Destroying energy production and distribution capacity as winter starts clearly impacts the civilian population and is a form of terror,” Schmale emphasized.
“The continued strikes throughout the country also give a sense of nowhere is safe […] in my almost one and a half years there, [I] feel and sense that the mental health impact of this war is increasing,” he added.
“This is increasingly a technological war, a drone war,” the UN official said, highlighting that drones were responsible for one third of all recorded civilian casualties in 2025. This year has seen a 30 percent overall increase in civilian deaths compared with 2024.
Among the civilian casualties of Thursday’s attack was a seven-year-old girl who died in the hospital following a strike in the central region of Vinnytsia. Earlier this week, a children’s hospital in Kherson City was severely damaged in an attack, injuring a child and health workers.
To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 477 attacks on health facilities and personnel in Ukraine between January and October of 2025. These strikes have hit hospitals, ambulances, and first responders. In total, WHO has verified over 2,700 attacks in Ukraine since Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022 — resulting in 224 deaths and 880 injuries.
Schmale recounted his recent experience visiting a kindergarten in Kharkiv right after it was struck by three missiles, describing it as a “poignant moment.”
“I just imagined as a parent, you drop your children in the morning at a kindergarten, you then get called back two and a half hours later […] to pick up your traumatized children who've just experienced three missiles hitting their kindergarten,” he said.
“This notion of safety for vulnerable people and children is really being violated all the time.”
Turning to the situation in Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian Federation, the Humanitarian Coordinator said that the longer the war continues, “the more we are at risk of forgetting the vulnerable people” in those areas.
According to estimates “about a million people are vulnerable in the so-called temporarily occupied territories,” he said.
The Humanitarian Coordinator also warned of ongoing attacks on fundamental rights, including attacks on citizenship.
“My understanding is that the occupying forces are insisting that Ukrainians are now registering for Russian documents in the occupied territories, and if they don't do so, they will be considered illegal and are subject to either deportation or arrest,” he said.
Downward trend in humanitarian funding threatens critical operations
The UN official further voiced concern over dwindling funds for the Ukraine humanitarian response, describing a "downward trend."
“In 2022, we had over $4 billion for humanitarian work in Ukraine. [In] 2023, it was still $2.6 [billion]. Last year, remarkably, 2024, with everything else going on in the world, still $2.2 [billion],” he said.
“This year we stand at $1.1 [billion], so far half of what we got last year and with two months to go” till the end of 2025, he added.
Three-quarters of the way through the year, only 44 percent of the $2.6 billion Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) has been funded, with just $1.15 billion received. However, amid the global crisis in humanitarian funding, Ukraine remains one of the highest funded UN country appeals worldwide.
In line with the humanitarian reset policy triggered by the worldwide funding crisis, the HNRP prioritizes identifying those in the most urgent need of assistance and mobilizing the most critical responses. The prioritized plan urgently seeks to raise $1.75 billion.
“The impact that we're beginning to see is in particular on our capacity to support the most vulnerable,” Schmale warned, urging the international community not to forget Ukraine.
Humanitarian organizations are even more concerned because there seems to be no end to the conflict in sight.
“On the ground in Kyiv and in my extensive travels to frontline areas, this feels increasingly like a protracted war,” the Humanitarian Coordinator noted.
“We have been through phases this year where there was cautious optimism that it might end […] right now on the ground, it doesn't feel at all like it's ending anytime soon.”
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the sharp increase in attacks in recent months has triggered additional needs and new displacement. This puts further pressure on an already strained response, especially as winter approaches.
Attacks and hostilities continue to kill and injure civilians — including children — and damage civilian infrastructure across Ukraine.
On Thursday, a strike in Kherson City severely damaged a children’s hospital, injuring a child and three medical workers. Residential areas and energy infrastructure in several regions were also damaged, leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity. While national energy operators and private companies work to restore supply, critical facilities continue operating on generators.
Local authorities in Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia regions reported at least one civilian killed, 17 injured, and multiple homes damaged on Thursday. In the Odesa region, attacks on the town of Podilsk damaged energy infrastructure and left nearly 30,000 families without electricity, injuring one civilian.
Latest attack on critical energy infrastructure one of the largest on Ukraine since 2022
On Thursday night into Friday morning, Russian armed forces conducted another large-scale combined attack against multiple regions of Ukraine, reportedly targeting critical energy infrastructure, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU).
Last night’s attack marked the third large-scale strike in October targeting energy infrastructure and damaged civilian facilities, leading to emergency power cuts across the country.
Preliminary reports indicate that at least two civilians were killed and 23 were injured, including six children, in Zaporizhzhia, which was reportedly hit by over eight ballistic missiles and 20 Shahed drones. Civilian casualties were also reported in the Kyiv and Vinnytsia regions.
“If attacks of this scale and frequency continue, there is a significant risk of dangerous consequences for civilians this winter, including prolonged disruptions to heating, electricity, and water supplies,” said Danielle Bell, head of the HRMMU, in a statement.
She warned that these disruptions would disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including older individuals, people with disabilities, and families with young children who are least able to cope with the loss of essential services in harsh winter conditions.
“With winter approaching, strikes on energy infrastructure increase the risk of prolonged disruptions to heating, electricity, and other essential services in Ukraine. This will have significant implications for civilians across the country, especially in regions already facing challenges to critical infrastructure,” Bell added.
Humanitarian needs increase as attacks surge
Attacks on civilian infrastructure continue to devastate lives and communities throughout Ukraine, creating critical humanitarian needs. An estimated 12.7 million people in Ukraine require humanitarian assistance in 2025, primarily women, children, older adults, and individuals with disabilities.
Despite funding constraints, from January to September of this year, aid agencies provided at least one form of humanitarian aid to over 4 million people across Ukraine — approximately two-thirds of the 6 million people the HNRP aimed to assist this year. More than 500 relief organizations participated, reaching the greatest number of people in the Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Mykolaiv regions.
Despite sporadic international discussions about ceasefire negotiations, the situation in Ukraine remains extremely volatile. The daily threat of shelling and airstrikes endangers lives constantly. Ukrainians continue to be killed, wounded, and deeply traumatized by the violence.
Civilians are particularly vulnerable to relentless Russian attacks along the eastern and southern frontlines. Serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, are widespread in the ongoing armed assault.
The conflict has created the largest displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. More than 10.7 million people remain displaced, and new waves of displacement are occurring in the north and east due to ongoing hostilities. As of 2025, approximately 6.9 million people are refugees in other countries, primarily in Russia, Poland, and Germany. Meanwhile, 3.8 million people remain Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) within Ukraine.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations have documented the deaths and injuries of more than 50,000 Ukrainian civilians, including over 3,000 children. From February 2022 to September 2025, more than 14,000 civilians, including hundreds of children, were killed in Ukraine, and more than 36,000 people were injured.
As these are UN-verified figures, the actual numbers are thought to be much higher. According to human rights monitors, many reports, particularly from certain locations and from the immediate aftermath of February 24, 2022, are still being verified due to the large volume of reports, while others could not be verified due to a lack of access.