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As Ukraine enters its fourth full-scale winter of war, thousands of people face the prospect of freezing temperatures that can plunge to -20°C, while electricity, heating, water supply, and other essential services remain at risk.
More than 3.3 million people remain displaced, and with over 2.5 million homes impacted — largely in frontline areas, the need for shelter insulation, heating, and winter NFIs remains urgent. Along the 0-20 km frontline belt, an estimated 455,000 households will require solid fuel support throughout the winter. Furthermore, intensified hostilities in frontline oblasts — notably Donetska, Kharkivska, and Sumska — continue to drive evacuations and cause significant damage. Since mid-2023, over 220,000 people have fled these regions, including 35,200 through transit centers in early 2025.
The burden falls heaviest on the most vulnerable groups - frontline households, displaced families, older persons, people with disabilities, and female-headed households, children and others with specific needs — who face the greatest barriers to safe heating, shelter repairs, insulation and winter NFIs. For them, inadequate heating and winter support is directly linked to increased morbidity, mortality, repeated displacement, and the collapse of already fragile coping mechanisms.
To address these urgent needs, the humanitarian community has launched the 2025–2026 Winter Response Plan, appealing for US$ 277.7 million to assist 1.7 million people. Within this, the Shelter/NFI and CCCM Clusters aim to reach 942,755 individuals at a cost of US$ 230 million, anchored on four objectives: