Eastern Europe · Critical · since February 2022
Ukraine
A fourth winter of strikes on the power grid that keeps families warm.
Russia's full-scale invasion and continued long-range strikes
~12.7M
People in need
Ukraine HNRP 2026
~3.7M
Internally displaced
UNHCR, 2025–26
~5.9M
Refugees in Europe
UNHCR, 2026
Rising
Civilian toll
Highest since 2023, UN HRMMU
What is happening
Around 12.7 million people need humanitarian assistance. Roughly 3.7 million are displaced inside Ukraine and close to six million live as refugees across Europe.
Attacks on energy infrastructure mean frontline towns face winters without heat, water pumping or reliable electricity for medical equipment.
What we don't think about
The elderly who would not leave
In frontline villages the people who remain are largely over seventy. They stay because a pension does not pay rent anywhere else.
Cold as a weapon
When a substation is hit, a tower block loses heating, lifts and water pressure at once. Families bathe children in kettles of boiled snow.
Four years of interrupted school
Children in border regions have moved between bomb-shelter classrooms and patchy online lessons since 2022.