“Attacks on frontline regions (are)
increasing and it’s always civilians that
are bearing the highest cost of the war,”
said UNHCR Representative
Karolina Lindholm Billing.
Since January, more than
3,500 newly displaced people have transited through a centre
in Pavlohrad towards central Ukraine; in total, more than
200,000 people have been evacuated or displaced from
frontline areas between August last year and the start of
2025.
Last to leave
Last month, more than
4,200 evacuees arrived at a transit centre in the
northeastern city of Sumy where UNHCR and partners provide
humanitarian support. These numbers are only a fraction of
all those made homeless by the violence and mandatory
evacuation orders issued by Kyiv in the face of ongoing
Russian aggression.
The majority of those being moved
are the elderly with low mobility or disabilities, families
with few resources and children. In many cases, they stayed
until the end because they didn’t want to leave everything
they had behind, UNHCR said.
Cities and civilians
targeted
On Thursday, UN aid agencies led
condemnation of Russian missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv
that killed 12 people and injured 84, one of a wave
of attacks across the country that point to an
intensification of the conflict since the start of the year
– and growing humanitarian needs for
refugees.
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“Those deadly Russian attacks have
intensified alarmingly since January,” said Ms. Billing,
speaking to journalists in Geneva via videolink from
Kyiv.
“More than 1,000 people have been directly
affected as their homes have been damaged or completely
destroyed. Civilian infrastructure were also hit in several
other regions yesterday, including in Kharkiv, where
I myself woke up around 2 am in the morning to the loud
sound of explosions.”
According to the UN
Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, civilian
casualties in Ukraine were 70 per cent higher in March this
year compared to 12 months earlier.
Supporting lives
and livelihoods
The war has left four million
internally displaced since 24 February 2022 when Russian
tanks rolled into Ukraine. Many of those uprooted have yet
to find affordable housing and a new job – which is why
support from humanitarian organizations is so crucial, the
UNHCR official continued.
“One of the main things we
deliver as part of the emergency response are emergency
shelter materials that help people cover broken windows,
roofs and doors,” Ms. Billing said.
Since 2022,
UNHCR has supported around 450,000 people making repairs on
their homes. The UN agency also provides psychological first
aid and legal support to those who have lost their identity
documents and emergency cash assistance to help people cover
most basic needs.
Funding impacts
But more
support is needed to sustain a timely and predictable
response to the many calls for assistance the agency
receives from the affected people and the
authorities.
Last year, US funding for UNHCR accounted
for around 40 per cent of its overall contributions. For
2025, UNHCR has appealed for $803.5 million to address the
emergency situation in Ukraine. Today, that appeal is just
25 per cent funded. During the winter period, the agency had
to put some of its programmes partially on hold, impacting
psychosocial support, emergency shelter material and cash
assistance.
