In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, United Nations relief chief Tom Fletcher and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi launched the humanitarian and refugee response plans for 2025. The UN is appealing for $3.3 billion to provide humanitarian assistance to 8.2 million of the 14.9 million Ukrainians whose lives have been upended by Russia's invasion of their country nearly three years ago.
“This has been a period of huge tragedy and despair, destruction and disruption,” said Fletcher, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, in Kyiv at the launch of the UN appeal alongside the government of Ukraine.
“We must be here at the side of the Ukrainian people as they respond to the consequences of a devastating war,” he said, noting that “the needs are great.”
Fletcher emphasized the importance of international solidarity to sustain critical humanitarian efforts in 2025.
“We have to respond by showing a real, genuine, sustained international engagement. We have to respond with heart. And when I say sustained, I mean that we will be here with the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes to meet these needs,” he said.
The lion's share of the twin humanitarian and refugee response plans for 2025 - $2.63 billion - will be used to support 6 million of the 12.7 million people inside Ukraine who need humanitarian assistance.
Humanitarian agencies in the country plan to assist 6 million people with food, health care, shelter, cash assistance, education in emergencies, protection and other essential services. Special focus will be given to the most vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly and people with disabilities, many of whom face isolation and barriers to accessing aid.
“We are prioritizing the most vulnerable. This is vulnerability driven and needs driven, and our aim is to support people wherever they are,” said Matthias Schmale, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine.
“It is not geography-based. It is vulnerability and needs-based. Inevitably, a big part of the needs are along the front line. We are supporting those who have chosen to stay near the front line […] particularly people with disabilities and older people who find it difficult to move,” he said.
A smaller amount - $690 million - will provide relief and protection over the next year to more than 2 million Ukrainians who have been forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in 11 Eastern European host countries bordering Ukraine.
The war has created the largest displacement crisis in Europe since World War II, with more than 10.4 million people remaining displaced. By the end of 2024, some 6.8 million people had been forced to flee abroad, and 3.6 million people continued to be internally displaced.
“There are almost 7 million Ukrainian refugees outside the country,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
He explained that the current appeal does not cover all host countries because national governments, mainly in Western Europe, are able to support the Ukrainian refugees. However, the 11 countries bordering Ukraine, such as Poland and Moldova, “really need extra support from the international community.”
Grandi said the countries hosting Ukrainian refugees abroad have done an incredible job over the past three years to provide security and a sense of normalcy to help these refugees rebuild their lives in their new communities.
“So, we are very grateful for what all governments hosting refugees — these 11 countries and others — have done to give refugees access to health services, to education, to the labor market,” he said.
“But of course, we are about to enter the fourth year of this hospitality, and it is important that this generosity continues.”
At the same time, Grandi stressed that “the objective is not to make sure that these people are refugees forever. The objective is for this to create the conditions for these people to return to Ukraine. This is what the majority of the refugees want.”
Last July and August, UNHCR surveyed more than 11,150 refugee households across Europe and in Ukraine among internally displaced people (IDPs) and returnees. It found that 61 percent of Ukrainian refugees and 73 percent of IDPs surveyed "still plan and hope to return home one day."
Fletcher urged the international community to “stay the course with the people of Ukraine.”
"The needs we have described are great. We are conscious, obviously, that the president, the government, are seeking negotiations, seeking ways to try to end this war. But just because you end a war does not mean the needs go away," he said.
“We recognize the needs will change. But even if we get progress, even if we get good news in the period ahead, we will still need to be here alongside our Ukrainian partners supporting the Ukrainian people.”
Fletcher also paid tribute to the humanitarian workers in Ukraine, calling them heroes who are working under pressure and in difficult conditions. Some 600 aid organizations - more than two-thirds of them Ukrainian - are operating tirelessly to provide critical assistance to millions of people.
In 2024, nearly 3 million people received food aid. Some 5.8 million people, mostly in frontline regions, received water, sanitation and hygiene assistance, while 2 million people benefited from health and medical services. Millions more were supported with shelter, education, protection services and cash assistance to meet urgent needs.
Fletcher noted that relentless attacks on energy systems, homes and other civilian infrastructure have rendered many hospitals inoperable, reduced people's access to livelihoods, deprived people of heat and water during the winter, and hindered children's access to education.
In 2024, Ukraine has seen a sharp increase in airstrikes, artillery attacks, and ground fighting along frontline communities, causing widespread devastation and civilian casualties.
Russia escalated its conflict with Ukraine by invading the country on multiple fronts on February 24, 2022. The people of Ukraine continue to be killed, wounded, and deeply traumatized by the violence. The civilian infrastructure on which they depend continues to be destroyed or damaged.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Ukraine: Summary of the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan and the Regional Refugee Response Plan, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, published January 16, 2025
https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/ukraine-summary-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-and-regional-refugee-response-plan-january-2025-enuk
Full text: Ukraine Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, published January 16, 2025
https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/ukraine-humanitarian-needs-and-response-plan-2025-january-2025-enuk
Full text: Regional Refugee Response Plan 2025-2026, UNHCR, released January 2025
https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/113657