As the war approaches its fifth year, the UN and its humanitarian partners on Tuesday launched the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP), which calls for US$2.3 billion to provide life-saving aid to more than 4 million people across Ukraine. An estimated 10.8 million people in Ukraine will require humanitarian assistance this year, including internally displaced persons (IDPs) and other populations affected by the war.
“Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis has been driven by relentless attacks—from the full-scale invasion in 2022 to the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in 2023 to more recent massive strikes on civilian infrastructure,” said Matthias Schmale, Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine.
“Today, we face yet another critical turning point: widespread disruptions to power and heating during extreme winter conditions are creating a crisis within a crisis and pushing people’s ability to cope to the breaking point.”
Front-line areas and northern border regions continue to face the greatest humanitarian needs due to intensified shelling, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and ongoing disruptions to essential services. Repeated missile and drone strikes across the country continue to cause civilian casualties, damage homes, and force people to flee.
“As the nature of this war continues to shift, humanitarian action must adapt—responding to new risks and intensifying needs. We must do the best we can to ensure that Ukraine’s most vulnerable can endure with as much dignity as possible,” Schmale said.
Those living in territories occupied by Russia are largely cut off from essential services and protection systems. They face serious rights violations and insecurity, while humanitarian access remains extremely limited.
When asked about access to these occupied areas on Tuesday in Geneva, Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters that around one million people in Russia-occupied territories are believed to need assistance that they are not currently receiving. He added that some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operate in those areas, but not on the required scale.
OCHA coordinates the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan on behalf of the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and partner aid agencies. The plan outlines priority humanitarian needs and the collective response to assist those most affected by the war in Ukraine.
This year's plan focuses on four areas to address the most urgent needs of the most vulnerable people in critical situations: people living near the front line, those forced to flee in search of safety, people whose homes are damaged or who have lost access to basic services after strikes, and vulnerable people, including IDPs at risk of falling through the cracks of the social protection support system.
Aid agencies are determined to respond quickly as the situation shifts, whether due to new attacks, waves of forced displacement, or seasonal hardships such as disrupted basic services after energy infrastructure is attacked during the freezing winter.
“We appeal to the international community, member states, other donors and people everywhere to maintain their solidarity with the most vulnerable people in Ukraine,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator. “We hope support continues for the work we do for the people in Ukraine.”
Funding shortages continue to hinder the humanitarian response. As of today, last year's $2.6 billion humanitarian appeal for Ukraine had received only $1.4 billion in funding.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities report that attacks across the country over the past day resulted in more than 30 civilian casualties, and basic services remain disrupted in freezing temperatures. Kyiv, the capital, and its surrounding region, as well as the regions of Donetsk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia, were among the hardest hit.
In Odesa, overnight attacks injured several civilians and damaged residential buildings, civilian facilities, and the office premises of several UN organizations. Rolling power outages continue across the country, and some areas — including parts of Kyiv — remain without heating as temperatures drop to -15°C.
In 2025, Ukrainians experienced a sharp escalation in the intensity and geographic reach of attacks. Strikes increasingly hit homes, hospitals, schools, energy facilities, and transport networks.
As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches the four-year mark, Ukrainians continue to be killed, wounded, and deeply traumatized by the violence. The civilian infrastructure on which they depend continues to be destroyed or damaged.
The war in Ukraine has led to one of the world's worst displacement crises, with more than 10.8 million people forced to flee their homes. An estimated 7.1 million of those people have sought refuge in other countries. Meanwhile, 3.7 million people remain internally displaced within Ukraine, and new waves of displacement continue to occur due to ongoing hostilities.
Further information
Full text: Ukraine Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), report, published on January 13, 2026
https://humanitarianaction.info/document/ukraine-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-2026