With the war and attacks continuing unabated across Ukraine, causing the humanitarian needs to soar, the European Union (EU) has committed €36.8 million to support UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency’s operations in the country from July 2025 through December 2026. 

The EU’s timely and generous support enables UNHCR to continue to deliver critical protection and life-saving assistance to internally displaced people, returnees and other war-affected families. This includes some of the most vulnerable like older people, families with children and people with low mobility or disabilities, as well as people in frontline regions where conditions are most severe.  

Since the start of the year, Ukraine has faced a surge in large-scale aerial attacks from the Russian Federation on cities such as Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Odesa. The attacks have killed and injured civilians as well as caused damage to residential areas and people’s homes, medical facilities, schools and other infrastructure. Civilian casualties in March were 70 per cent higher than in the same period last year, according to the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission.

In response, UNHCR provides emergency aid to families impacted by the strikes. UNHCR repairs homes, allowing people to return to or remain in their communities; provides assistance to some of the most vulnerable internally displaced people who are hosted in collective sites across the country; and provides psychosocial support to help people cope with the trauma of living through more than three years of full-scale war. 

In Ukraine, UNHCR is working in close coordination with the local, regional and national authorities to compliment the government-led response – and through a strong network of NGO partners, 13 of 14 being national Ukrainian NGOs. In 2025, UNHCR aims to deliver a total of 2.7 million multi-sectoral services to people in need, contingent on receiving the necessary funding. 

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has been a staunch supporter of UNHCR’s humanitarian response, providing funding each year to support urgent needs in Ukraine. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, the EU has supported with a total of €166.2 million, which include several financial top-ups to ensure the rollout of critical winter assistance during the cold season. In addition, the EU has provided €26.2 million in financial support to UNHCR’s response towards refugees from Ukraine in Moldova as outlined in the Ukraine Refugee Response Plan. 

“Across Ukraine, the humanitarian and recovery needs remain immense and urgent as the relentless attacks continue, forcing people to flee or rise from the rubbles after strikes,” says Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR’s Representative in Ukraine. “Together with our local NGO partners, UNHCR is responding, with both immediate life-saving aid to the most vulnerable as well as support to help people and communities rebuild homes and lives. This is only possible thanks to the support from our donors, and I am very grateful to the EU for this generous and very timely contribution. This funding will truly make a difference in people’s lives and send a strong signal to the people in Ukraine that they are not forgotten.”

“Every day, Russian attacks continue to devastate peaceful Ukrainian cities, leaving more people homeless and inflicting deep physical and psychological trauma. That is why the joint work of the EU and UNHCR remains critically important for Ukrainians. And that is why it will continue. As long as Ukrainians need it, the EU and its partners will stand by them,” states Marianna Franco, the Head of the EU Humanitarian Aid in Ukraine.

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About EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid: The European Union and its Member States are among the world's leading donors of humanitarian aid. Relief assistance is an expression of European solidarity with people in need all around the world. It aims to save lives, prevent and alleviate human suffering, and safeguard the integrity and human dignity of populations affected by disasters and human-induced crises. Through the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of the European Commission, the European Union helps millions of victims of conflict and disasters every year. With headquarters in Brussels and a global network of field offices, the EU provides assistance to the most vulnerable people on the basis of humanitarian needs.

About UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency: UNHCR is a global inter-governmental organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people. UNHCR has been present in Ukraine since 1994, providing protection services and assistance to help refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, war-affected and stateless people access their rights and essential services and find sustainable solutions.