According to a new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an estimated 3.9 million people remained internally displaced in Ukraine as of June 2026. While the proportion of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) has remained at around 12 percent of the population since 2023, the report shows that the longer displacement persists, the greater the struggle for families to meet their basic needs.
Almost 70 percent of IDPs have now been away from home for over two years, indicating the increasingly protracted nature of displacement in Ukraine. New displacement is also ongoing: an estimated 132,000 people were forced to flee their homes between January and June of this year alone.
“Stable displacement figures should not be mistaken for stable living conditions,” said Dejan Keserovic, IOM Ukraine's Deputy Chief of Mission, in a statement on Monday.
“Many displaced families are exhausting their savings, reducing essential expenses, including health care, and moving into less adequate housing as they try to meet their basic needs.”
Keserovic stressed that sustained support is essential to help people regain stability and make informed, voluntary choices about their future.
The IOM report found that 87 percent of displaced households have had to take at least one difficult step to cope. The most common steps were using up savings (75%), cutting back on utilities (59%), and reducing health spending (53%). Additionally, one in five households reported moving to lower-quality housing, and 17 percent have fallen behind on rent.
Pressure has steadily built — last winter's harsh weather and long power and heating outages hit already vulnerable families particularly hard.
According to the report, safety is the most important factor in people's decisions about the future. In fact, 82 percent of IDPs say they only want to return home once the fighting stops. At the same time, more people are considering settling permanently where they currently live. Interest in local integration increased from 51 percent in March to 58 percent in June of 2026.
IOM emphasized the importance of supporting displaced families wherever they are while monitoring the risks associated with premature or unsafe returns.
Around 2.15 million people — 56 percent of all those displaced in Ukraine — originally came from areas that were fully or partly occupied at the time of the survey. This group has experienced longer displacement, greater hardship, and fewer opportunities to return home.
IOM emphasized that these findings demonstrate why emergency aid alone is insufficient.
“People need longer-term support with housing, jobs, health care, protection, and other essential services — so they can make informed, voluntary choices, whether that means settling where they are, moving elsewhere, or returning home safely once conditions allow,” the organization said.
The report is based on IOM's latest survey of the Ukrainian population, which was carried out between April 23 and June 30, 2026.
Due to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, nearly 10 million Ukrainians remain forcibly displaced, including at least 5.7 million refugees worldwide, according to the latest figures from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as of June 30, 2026. The highest number of refugees are hosted within Germany, followed by Poland.
However, the actual number of displaced Ukrainians who have crossed international borders may be much higher since UNHCR's refugee figures primarily cover those registered in Europe (5.2 million) and other host countries (more than 500,000), while many Ukrainians in Russia are recorded under different legal categories and are not fully reflected in UNHCR's refugee statistics.
Further information
Full text: Ukraine — Internal Displacement Report — General Population Survey Round 24 (July 2026), International Organization for Migration (IOM).
https://dtm.iom.int/reports/ukraine-internal-displacement-report-general-population-survey-round-24-july-2026
Website: UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): Operational Data Portal (ODP): Situation Ukraine Refugee Situation
https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine