“I’m talking about internally displaced people who have been in collective sites for two or three years; I’m talking about older people and people with limited mobility,” said Matthias Schmale, the top U.N. aid official in Ukraine, outlining some of the priorities of Tuesday’s appeal.
According to media reports and official information from Ukrainian authorities, during the past week alone, Russian forces launched nearly 1,100 attack drones into Ukraine, more than 890 guided aerial bombs and at least 50 missiles of various types, including ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile aimed at Lviv in western Ukraine, near the border with Poland.
In addition to providing basic aid including food, medical care, shelter, protection and cash assistance, other key objectives of Tuesday’s funding appeal include supporting the evacuation of people in imminent danger – “heroic work near the front lines,” Schmale said, of the hundreds of UN-supported partners carrying out this life-saving work.
Frontline needs
He explained that funding is needed to help civil society partners responding to military attacks across the country – but primarily within 50 kilometers of the front line – helping farmers trying to survive in a war zone, along with cancer patients whose access to medicines has been disrupted by attacks affecting healthcare.
“We want to continue supporting as best we can (but) all of this needs funding,” Schmale said, highlighting the “enormous civil suffering” across Ukraine, particularly as communities endure temperatures plunging to -15°C in Kviv – “an emergency within an emergency” that will likely require more funding from the international community on top of Tuesday’s appeal, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator said.
“We call in particular on the international community, UN Member States and other donors to maintain their solidarity with Ukraine and express it in the form of financial support for the work we plan to continue,” he said.
Speaking in kyiv during the launch of the appeal, Schmale highlighted an update from the UN human rights monitoring team that 2025 was the deadliest year for civilians since 2022, with more than 2,500 civilians killed and more than 12,000 injured.