Russia’s continuing full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to devastate civilian lives and infrastructure, causing large-scale displacement and destruction.With attacks in the eastern, southern and northeastern frontline regions intensifying, April saw the highest number of civilians killed in Ukraine since last September.As the UN marks Protection of Civilians Week, UN News’s Nargiz Shekinskaya spoke to Andrea De Dominico, head of the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) in Ukraine and began by asking him what the biggest concerns are.Listen here: Ukrainian civilians in dire need of more humanitarian support  , filtered_html

The moment you feel needed again changes everythingUkrainian veterans returning to civilian life are finding renewed purpose through the course of mechanized and innovative demining for veterans with disabilities. The two-and-a-half-week course equipped participants with skills ranging from operating mechanical demining machines to understanding national mine action standards and principles. But most importantly, it allowed them to apply their skills and experiences to contribute positively to society, prepared to clean lands of mines and explosives. “For veterans, especially after an injury, it’s crucial to feel needed again – by your loved ones, your country, and, most importantly, yourself. That feeling is irreplaceable. To know you’re not forgotten. To know you’re needed. To know you matter,” – explains Mykola, who finished the course and now is ready to use the knowledge and skills to restore safety and hope to thousands of people. A new life for the communityThe Ivankiv community in Ukraine suffered severe destruction in 2022. Thousands of homes and public buildings were damaged or destroyed. In 2023, the community became a pilot site for the UN-led recovery initiative. Key activities included repairing the local lyceum and cultural center, establishing a sports complex, restoring over 250 private homes, and installing 18 prefabricated houses for families whose homes were beyond repair.The head of the Ivankiv Village Council, Tetiana Svyrydenko, emphasized the significance of these efforts, stating, "The reconstruction process is an important signal for the local population that Ivankiv community is returning to normal life." Similar community initiatives are being coordinated by various UN agencies in other cities and regions of Ukraine like Markariv, Drohobych, Mykolaiv and others.  Green energy supports a mountain farm"I never thought we could be so dependent on electricity. During power outages, or when power lines are damaged – often in the mountains – the solar panels and generator have been a huge help," – says Oksana, who lives in Ivano-Frankivska oblast and, together with her husband, runs a mountain farm.  The farm keeps 156 sheep and produces 11 types of cheese, including vurda and bryndzia – traditional Carpathian varieties with unique flavours and protected geographical origin status. These are not just cheeses, they are part of the cultural identity of the region. But the war changed everything. Visitor numbers dropped dramatically, and the already fragile infrastructure in the mountains struggled to keep up. Long and unpredictable power outages disrupted the farm’s daily operations.With support from FAO and the European Union, the family purchased needed equipment and installed solar panels. These green technologies not only improve day-to-day operations but also bring environmentally responsible practices into the heart of traditional mountain farming.Starting everything from scratch, but at homeVira and her husband had nearly completed the renovation of their home in Borodianka, a town near Kyiv, when the full-scale invasion of Ukraine changed everything. A shell struck their property, leaving their house beyond repair and forcing them to flee and leave behind the life they had worked so hard to build.In the aftermath, the UN stepped in to clear the site of debris and explosives, ensuring it was safe, and provided the couple with a prefabricated house. This assistance allowed them to return to their community rather than face prolonged displacement.Now, back in Borodianka, Vira and her husband are slowly rebuilding their lives. Their garden, once a source of pride, has become a symbol of resilience and renewal. While the scars of war remain, their determination to restore what was lost is a testament to the strength of Ukraine’s people. Helping families to go through hardshipsAlyona, a mother of three daughters, struggled with financial situation and finding a stable job while the children were in the boarding school in central Ukraine. In 2022, when the full-scale war started in Ukraine, Diana and her sisters returned home. However, the family's financial situation has been extremely difficult. With the UN's assistance, Alyona secured stable employment and enhanced her parenting skills, leading to improved family dynamics. Her daughter Diana reflects, "In my free time, my mom, sisters, and I go for walks or draw together. When my mom is at work, we spend time with my grandfather. He makes us more disciplined and helps us with our studies.” UNICEF’s ’Better Care for Every Child' program collaborates with social services to support families facing hardships, especially amid the ongoing war. By strengthening family support systems, the program creates a safer and more nurturing environment for children, ensuring their emotional, psychological, and physical needs are met.After years of upheaval, Ukrainian children catch up with classesAmid the ongoing war in Ukraine, children like eight-year-old Alyona from the Zaporizhzhia region have faced significant disruptions to their education. After spending her entire first grade and part of the second studying online due to the war, Alyona finally met many of her 11 classmates in person when her lyceum transitioned to a mixed learning format."When I was in kindergarten, the coronavirus started. And when I was in first grade, the war broke out," she recalls.  To address these challenges, UNICEF has been instrumental in supporting educational initiatives, for example catch-up lessons, allowing children from third to tenth grade to attend mathematics and Ukrainian language classes twice a week to recover lost learning. In addition to academic support, efforts are underway to ensure safe learning environments. These initiatives reflect a strategic commitment to safeguarding education amid adversity, offering Ukrainian children not only knowledge but also a semblance of normalcy and hope for the future.Healthcare solutions for war-affected communitiesIn the village of Tsyrkuny, Kharkiv region, the local healthcare facility was destroyed, leaving residents without essential medical services. Recognizing the urgent need, the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, installed a modular primary healthcare clinic in September 2024. This new facility, staffed by five dedicated healthcare workers, now serves approximately 12,000 patients annually, providing a lifeline to the community. Similar modular units were installed in other regions' clinics, benefiting over 50,000 Ukrainians affected by the war. Each clinic can be set up in 10 to 14 days and is designed to be a long-term solution with a lifespan exceeding 10 years. Designed to operate during emergency power outages, each clinic is equipped with a generator to ensure an uninterrupted power supply. Supporting resilience of the eco-industrial parks in UkraineThe Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP) in Ukraine, launched by UNIDO in 2020 and supported by the Swiss Government, helps local communities by making industrial parks cleaner and more efficient.These eco-industrial parks create safer jobs, healthier environments, and better economic chances for people. The programme works with parks like BVAK in Bila Tserkva, AgroMash in Zaporizhzhia, and Patriot in Sumy to use energy and resources more wisely. One example is Trivium Packaging in Bila Tserkva, which utilizes waste heat recovery to reduce energy bills and enhance working conditions. Following the audit conducted by UNIDO, Trivium Packaging introduced several waste heat recovery solutions. “Since 2020, we have been actively cooperating with UNIDO on energy-saving projects. Sustainable development is one of the company's core values,” says Ludmila Tereschenko, Deputy Director at Trivium Packaging in Bila Tserkva.  Ukrainian women in a frontline town are taking over as tractor driversWith a population of around 10,000, the town of Snihurivka was known as an agricultural area by its expansive fields, favourable climate for growing vegetables and most of the town people working in agriculture.  Bringing a gap of the shortage of skilled personnel in the agricultural sector, especially in war-affected areas like Mykolaiv Oblast, and ensuring a gender-responsive local recovery, UNDP’s tractor driving training programme brought together women with diverse background from an 18-year-old student to a 47-year-old minibus driver and mother of three.“I’ve been working in the fields since I was a baby. My brother was a tractor driver, so it runs in the family. Did I ever imagine myself in the driver's seat of this giant before? No. Can I see myself there in the future? Absolutely!”- says Nadia, one of the students of driving course.As these women prepare to take the reins of their community’s agricultural future, they are not just learning to drive tractors, they are becoming the backbone of economic recovery.Twice displaced, but refusing to give upOver the past decade, the war in Ukraine has displaced millions, including 41-year-old Yana Liubymova. Uprooted twice—from Kadiivka in 2014 and Starobilsk in 2022—Yana transformed personal adversity into advocacy. She co-founded "The Effective Community" to aid displaced individuals and, in 2020, became head of the Luhansk region's Council for Internally Displaced People (IDP Council), bridging the gap between the displaced and authorities.  Reflecting on her journey, Yana shared, “Would I do anything differently, if I knew that in 10 years, I will lose my home twice? No, I would try to help even more. In those moments when it feels as if I cannot do it anymore, I think of people who are not able to help themselves. I choose to be responsible for them. And I cannot afford to stop.” Together with partners, UNHCR continues to support over 100 IDP councils.Supporting justice and accountability in UkraineLina who fled the city of Enerhodar, in southeastern Ukraine, after it was occupied by Russian armed forces, described how residents there were under increasing pressure to obtain Russian passports to facilitate daily life.  “Health services are not being provided for people with Ukrainian passports, so people are being forced to obtain Russian passports,” she said, adding that older persons and people with disabilities are the most affected. Through its diligent work of documenting and producing evidence-based reports on the human rights situation, UN Human Rights Mission in Ukraine supports accountability mechanisms and facilitates victims' and survivors’ access to justice. A story of survival, leadership and support for Ukraine’s womenLudmyla Huseynova, an activist from Novoazovsk - a city that has been under Russia’s occupation since 2014 - has dedicated herself to supporting orphaned children and advocating for women's rights. Her refusal to accept Russian control led to her arrest, followed by more than three years of detention, sexual violance and torture.  Liudmyla attended a training of trainers for women paralegals working with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, organized by UN Women and its partner, Association of Ukrainian Women Lawyers “JurFem”. She found the training invaluable for helping others with legal referrals, document recovery, and directing survivors through the judicial process.“I’m doing everything I can to help these women because I remember their tears, the eyes I looked into. We will use every means to make their pain visible and make sure that everyone knows about them,” – explains Liudmila., filtered_html

Nazar’s thirteenth birthday celebration earlier this year was not what he dreamed of, to welcome his teenage years at home with family and friends. Instead, he spent it in a hospital ward, which has become his second home for the last few months.  Nazar remembers 4 November 2024 as just an ordinary Monday morning. He finished his online school lessons and went for a walk with a friend close to home. "It was beyond the highway,” recalls Nazar. “I don't even remember where exactly we were going.” Nazar’s friend spotted an object on the ground and kicked it. The object was unexploded ordnance.  The explosive device detonated. Nazar sustained leg injuries, and his friend was injured in the torso. Their mobile phones were thrown from them, but Nazar managed to crawl through the mud with injured legs to grab his device and call for help. "We received a call saying that he had called an ambulance, saying his legs were torn off. The ambulance didn't believe him at first,” says Yevheniia, Nazar’s mother.   Nazar was taken to the nearest hospital in the town of Barvinkove. There, he was given immediate assistance and then referred to a more specialized hospital in Kharkiv city, a three-hour drive away.  "The first month was difficult because we were not given any predictions,” says Yevheniia. “They said we had to monitor the condition of the soft tissues. If everything was fine, then it was fine, but if necrosis started, they would partially amputate.” In total, Nazar underwent 14 surgeries, having suffered fractures, deep shrapnel wounds and hemorrhagic shock. He had to have part of his right foot amputated. Since that horrific late November day, Nazar has only been home twice in-between treatments.  "Rehabilitation has just started for us,” says Yevheniia. “The first surgery was when we arrived at the hospital. Then there were two more surgeries – skin grafts. Just two weeks ago, the plates were removed, and the rehabilitation stage began.”  On his most recent trip home, Nazar arrived with crutches and a walker. After the injury, Nazar could only sit or lie down but now, with the help of the walker, he is taking his first steps and learning to walk again.   His physical recovery is underway, but the mental scars also require significant support and time to heal. "When we first arrived to see Nazar, he was not really willing to talk,” says Olena Hunchenko, a case manager from the International Rescue Committee. “Probably, it was a child's reaction to what had happened. During the next visits, Nazar became more open, talking about his studies, hobbies, and even sharing some moments of the incident.” Olena says she learned about Nazar’s injury from the news and then found Yevheniia’s contact information the same day and called to offer support. Cash assistance, mental health and psychosocial support and rehabilitation aids, including crutches and a walker, have been provided within the UNICEF and International Rescue Committee supported programme on child-focused survivor assistance, funded by the EU. This support will enable Nazar’s recovery and support Yevheniia and the family to better cope with the additional needs that he has following the accident.  Nazar explains that, before his injury, he took lessons on mine safety at school, but he did not think his village could be contaminated with explosive remnants of war and mines. However, his home in Nikopol is close to the front line and often impacted by shelling – leaving unexploded devices in locations where they pose high risk to people, in particular children. “The threat of explosive ordnance can be hidden anywhere—even in places that seem familiar or harmless. That’s why our education efforts focus on instilling clear and practical safety rules in children and young people: never approach or touch unknown objects, always tell a trusted adult right away, and report the danger by calling 101,” explains Svitlana Kisilova, Social Behaviour Specialist at UNICEF Ukraine. Now Nazar studies online again and reads books on a new tablet that he received through the child focused victim assistance programme. He says he is good at maths and, before his injury, he loved playing football with friends. In a few weeks, Yevheniia and Nazar will return to the hospital in Kharkiv to continue rehabilitation. Case manager Olena says that, unfortunately, Nazar is not the only child in Kharkiv region who she has supported after an injury. "I have many cases of injured children, more than 30,” says Olena. “These are injuries from various unexploded explosive devices including from shelling in Kharkiv itself.” To support children who have suffered accidents caused by mines or other explosive weapons in Ukraine, a holistic child focused victim assistance programme was launched by UNICEF in 2024, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, with the support of the European Union's Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO). Nazar is one of 570 children who have received critical assistance under this programme to ensure tailored support for their long-term recovery. , filtered_html

Mykolaiv and Kherson oblasts remain among the areas most affected by ongoing hostilities in southern Ukraine. Civilian infrastructure continues to suffer repeated damage, leaving the most vulnerable people in need of support. Local and international humanitarian partners are working tirelessly to assist communities. The Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, travelled to Mykolaiv and Kherson to meet with authorities, partners, and communities and to witness firsthand the impact of humanitarian assistance delivered by UN and partner organizations.Bread and Resilience in Mykolaiv In Mykolaiv, the Coordinator visited a local bakery operated by Mavi Hilal, the International Blue Crescent (IBC). The bakery is a lifeline for food-insecure communities in the south, producing up to 3,500 loaves of bread five days a week.  By 9:00 a.m. daily, fresh bread is distributed through over 25 local partners, reaching internally displaced people, the elderly, and low-income families. Weekly deliveries to Kherson ensure 1,500 loaves reach communities along the front line.The visit continued to the Resilience Centre established by the Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health in collaboration with the Mykolaiv City Council and the Ministry of Social Policy. Now fully funded by local authorities, the centre provides critical psychosocial assistance and social support services.  “This is an excellent example of how humanitarian and government actors can work hand in hand to build sustainable support systems,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator.Later, during a meeting with national and international NGOs, participants discussed the operational landscape in the south, including coordination challenges and the reprioritization of the humanitarian response. The Humanitarian Coordinator emphasized the importance of inclusive efforts, especially at the sub-national level.Community-Driven Response in KhersonThe mission continued to Kherson, a city reeling from daily shelling and long-standing disruption to daily routines. The Humanitarian Coordinator met with volunteers from “Food of Life”, a local group providing hot meals twice a week to residents in front-line neighbourhoods.He then visited the Mongoose shelter. The shelter run by local organization Mangoose accommodates people displaced by attacks, offering meals, legal support, psychosocial services, and guidance on accessing further assistance.  “With daily care and support from social workers, this centre offers dignity and stability to those who have lost everything,” Schmale noted.At a meeting point for social transport organized by the NGO Humanitarian Mission Proliska, the Humanitarian Coordinator saw how teams are facilitating mobility for people in remote villages, linking them to essential services in Kherson. At another stop, local NGO partner Misto Syly highlighted how construction materials had been distributed to support home repairs, part of a broader shelter recovery initiative led by local NGOs and supported by international donors.In Posad Pokrovske, a village heavily impacted by fighting with the Russian Federation, the Humanitarian Coordinator observed food distributions managed by ADRA under a WFP programme. Nearby, in Luch village, Solidarités International demonstrated shelter repair efforts interventions funded by ECHO, CDCS and AFD.Working with Authorities for Recovery and ProtectionIn Kherson City, the Humanitarian Coordinator met with the Governor of Kherson Oblast to discuss humanitarian priorities, including support for internally displaced people and early recovery plans. The Governor shared his vision for the region’s recovery and reaffirmed the importance of coordination with humanitarian partners.In his remarks during the meeting with Matthias Schmale, the Governor said: “I am grateful that our partners continue to personally visit our region despite ongoing shelling — and today, even airstrikes on the central district of the city.” He added: “Even under these circumstances, we managed to outline the next steps for cooperation, including expanding support for displaced families, winterization, and sustainable energy solutions.”The final stop of the mission was the Transit Centre in Mykolaiv, operated by the NGO “Youth of Ukraine,” which has supported over 32,000 evacuees from Kherson oblast since 2022, offering short-term shelter and onward transportation.Staying the CourseAs hostilities intensify in eastern and southern Ukraine, the Humanitarian Coordinator reaffirmed the commitment of the UN and humanitarian partners to stay and deliver:“Despite the risks and losses, local volunteers, NGOs, and international partners are here every day – delivering food, supporting evacuations, repairing homes, and offering a lifeline of hope. Their dedication is extraordinary. We will continue to support them and ensure our response evolves to meet the shifting needs on the ground.”  , filtered_html