Remarks of UN Relief Aid Chief, Tom Fletcher, at a joint launch of the 2025 humanitarian and regional refugee response appeals

[AS DELIVERED]

When you watch these videos and visit communities, as we have done in recent days, you’re reminded that the numbers that we talk about today are not the real issues here, it is the lives behind the numbers that count and motivates us to do better. 

I want to say unequivocally to those under the bombs, to those trying to rebuild lives, to those trying to just continue lives in these circumstances, to all those in dire humanitarian need – and I will say this on behalf of the UN family: we have been with you, and we are with you today, and we will be with you.

Ambassadors, colleagues, dear friends,

Thank you for being here at this launch of our plan for 2025. It is, of course, a profound, sobering moment for the people of Ukraine as we approach the three-year mark of the full-scale war. 

So thank you, Ms. Vereshchuk, for your words and for the genuine, exceptional, unique partnership that we have forged with the authorities here as we seek to working out where to meet the needs the Ukrainians face.

And as you said, there’s a danger with crises like these, of this intensity and ferocity and this duration, that we become fatigued. It is understandable that the Ukrainian people have become fatigued. But the international community has no excuse to become fatigued. We cannot allow the abnormal to become norm. Ukraine has not lost its courage. We, as humanitarians, must not lose our heart. 

Instead, we must strengthen our solidarity with all who need our support, work tirelessly to improve our humanitarian delivery and listen, as we’ve been doing this week, to you. Listen to the communities who will tell us what they need. 

The numbers paint a bleak picture: in 2025, a staggering 36 per cent of people will need humanitarian support as the war continues unabated, destroying so many lives.

And that is why, as you heard, on my first visit here as [Emergency Relief] Coordinator, I chose to go east where these needs are starkest. 

It is sobering to walk through a completely bombed-out medical clinic in Zaporizhzhia, knowing that 11 people – four of them medical staff – lost their lives there just a few weeks ago. 

It is heartbreaking to see the anguish on the faces of the elderly evacuees I met in Pavlohrad who have lost everything and now need to rebuild everything. 

But there’s also hope. In an underground school just across the road from that bombed-out medical site in Zaporizhzhia, built in only six months, parents and teachers – in fact the Head Teacher – taught me the word toloka – she talked to me how it means that communities gather together in times of stress, support each other. 

I have seen unrelenting toloka this week in Ukraine. And my message to the world is that we need some toloka too. We must learn from the Ukrainian people. 

I was also closer to the frontlines – near Pokrovsk, in Shevchenko and Kupiansk – and I have seen the courage of aid workers, almost all of them Ukrainian, and the determination of families who stay to rebuild their homes and their lives. 

I want to pay particular tribute to the humanitarian workers in Ukraine. You have many heroes here in Ukraine in this period when you are under such pressure, such dire conditions. Your humanitarian workers are up there with those heroes. Their courage in going back towards the frontlines in order to support those fleeing matches the courage of anyone who I have met.

Ukraine – as you will hear from my friend and colleague the High Commissioner Filippo [Grandi] – is also a displacement crisis. As the fighting continues on the frontlines, more people flee to safety. But many are also unable to leave and we must also support them, wherever they are, and whatever they need. 

In Pavlohrad, I saw how crucial the support is from humanitarian partners, for people who have fled their homes on the frontlines, not knowing where to go next, often without documents, without anything as the missiles are falling. In the transit centres for the displaced, we and our partners work together on the essentials, blankets, food, support in retrieving those essential documents, hygiene kits, legal help, advice on where to go next. Sometimes, as I saw time and time again, that human connection, the hug, that sense that we are together, that sense that we are not alone.

It is also important to say that we must never forget the plight of those who are living in the occupied territories, where the needs are extreme, and where the situation is further exacerbated by the lack of humanitarian access. We are determined to help change that. 

We will continue to press for greater access, to deliver support to all people in need, whoever and wherever they are.

And let us not forget that communities in the west of Ukraine – and even here in Kyiv, as we have experienced, where we are, underground once again – have also been affected.

Relentless attacks against energy systems, homes, civilian infrastructure have rendered many hospitals inoperable, reduced access to livelihoods and essential goods, deprived people of heat and water during the coldest months of the year, and hindered children’s access to education – those crucial early months and years of education that risk jeopardizing the future of that entire generation. 

So, the war and its broader impact are far from over. 

But in response, Ukraine has become a humanitarian superpower. Six hundred humanitarian partners work tirelessly to deliver critical aid to millions of people. Over 70 per cent are Ukrainian organizations – I had the privilege of meeting so many this week, making every effort to get that support and save lives on the frontlines and across the country. I believe that when the guns fall silent and war ends, they will ensure that Ukraine goes from being importer of humanitarian support to being exporter of humanitarian support.

As humanitarians, we are committed to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes. 

We are also conscious that the international community must scale up investment in recovery and development to help communities rebuild and regain stability and address long-term needs.

While the war continues, our partners must be able to deliver aid to address immediate relief and save lives.

For that, they need the support of the international community. 

The plan we launch today is the vehicle for that. We now need to fuel that vehicle. This year, we are asking for US$2.6 billion of funding. That will go to help 6 million people across Ukraine to meet their basic food, healthcare and cash needs. It will save lives. 

More will be needed, as we will hear from Filippo, to support those who are also fleeing Ukraine to neighbouring countries.

Ultimately, we must redouble efforts to bring this war to an end, so that the Ukrainian people can build their future with security, justice and opportunity. 

Let me repeat: you are not alone, we are together, and we are with you.

Thank you.

Opening remarks at press briefing prior to the launch of the 2025 Ukraine Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan and Ukraine Regional Response Plan

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for being here as we prepare to launch the 2025 action plan. This is our blueprint for support to the Ukrainian people in the coming year. It recognizes that these needs are great, and that we must be here at the side of the Ukrainian people as they respond to the consequences of a devastating war. 

Now, unlike my friend and colleague, [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] Filippo [Grandi], this is my first visit to Ukraine as [Under-Secretary-General]. And it was important for me to get straight to the front lines to really see the impact of the war on Ukrainian communities who are fleeing the conflict. And so I’ve been to Zaporizhzhia, I’ve been to Dnipro, Pavlohrad, Pokrovsk, Shevchenkove, Kupiansk, Kharkiv, and now I’m concluding almost a week in Ukraine here in Kyiv.

And what I’ve seen out in eastern Ukraine are a number of things. I’ve seen the importance to our work of this very, very close, unique partnership with the authorities in working out how to deliver humanitarian assistance. I’ve seen our extraordinary partnership with Ukrainian NGOs. It is those NGOs who are leading the humanitarian work here.

And I pay tribute to the humanitarian workers who I’ve met up and down the country. They are heroes of this effort. And they are making Ukraine a humanitarian superpower. I also pay tribute to the local communities that I met on my travels. 

And I’m reminded of the head teacher of an underground school that I visited in Dnipro who taught me the Ukrainian word toloka. She described it as the way that a community rallies round in times of trouble, supports each other. And that’s what is happening here in Ukraine, even as we approach this third anniversary of this phase of the war. And it is what we are now asking for from the international community. 

The Ukrainian people have shown incredible courage over these years, and 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 and to support them in this moment. 

Now, our plans – and I do encourage you to read the plan – our plans are, of course, practical. They’re concrete. They are based on efficiency, prioritization, work done with our local partners to identify the specific needs that Ukrainians have and respond to those needs. 

Our ask, as you’ll see, of the world is for $2.6 billion to fund this campaign and to help us to reach 6 million people. And my friend and colleague, the High Commissioner, will speak more about the work that we’re doing on displaced and on refugees as part of that plan.

You know, for us, we’re dealing with a tough funding environment globally. I’m looking for $47 billion – we’re looking for $47 billion for the humanitarian community to support 190 million people globally. And we’re doing that in an environment where humanitarians are underfunded, overstretched and – here and in many parts of the world – literally under attack. Last year was the hardest year on record to be a humanitarian.

But we are determined not to lose our sense of mission, our sense of purpose. We’re determined to stay and deliver for those in the direst need across the world, and of course, including here in Ukraine. The capacity here is incredibly strong. The Ukrainian NGO movement, Ukrainian civil society, is building a real, long-term legacy of wisdom and experience and delivery on the front lines of this humanitarian effort.

And there will be a time, I believe, when Ukraine will go from being an importer of humanitarian support to being an exporter of that humanitarian support on the front lines of the global effort across the world. But first, we have these immediate priorities that are set out in this plan. They give us a roadmap for delivering the support that our partners have told us that they need.

To get that job done, to save lives – which is our bottom line – we need this plan funded, and that is our call today to our international partners. We need peace, and so we support the efforts towards a just peace. And let me be clear that we will stay as long as it takes. Thank you. 

Media contacts:

In New York: Eri Kaneko, kaneko@un.org, +1 917 208 8910

In Kyiv: Jens Laerke, laerke@un.org, +41 79 472 9750