Ukraine: Humanitarian Situation Snapshot (January - February 2025) [EN/UK]

The first two months of 2025 saw continued attacks across Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and injuries to nearly 1,300 others, as the country marked the third year of the full-scale war on 24 February. The Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (HRMMU) verified that at least 271 civilians were killed and 1,328 others injured in January and February, mostly near the front line in Donetska and Khersonska oblasts. Attacks resulting in elevated numbers of civilian casualties also occurred in Poltava City and Kharkivska Oblast. Missile and drone strikes damaged or destroyed civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals and energy facilities. Government-led and humanitarian-supported evacuations of children with families, older people and people with disabilities continued as the front line in eastern Ukraine continued to shift. Attacks on energy infrastructure in January and February disrupted vital services — including heating, gas, and water — for hundreds of thousands of people across Ukraine. Humanitarians are closely monitoring the ceasefire negotiations and preparing contingency plans should a pause in fighting materialize.

Anticipated nationwide blackouts were avoided due to a milder-than-expected winter and government measures such as electricity imports from neighbouring countries. However, attacks on power generation and distribution systems still severely disrupted essential services, particularly heating and water supplies, according to the latest REACH brief. A strike on a thermal power plant in Mykolaiv on 16 February left approximately 100,000 people without heating amid freezing temperatures. On 18 February, a widespread drone attack disrupted basic services for more than 250,000 people in Odesa. These prolonged outages undermined water and sanitation systems and disrupted access to health care and education, compounding the vulnerabilities of displaced people. The Fourth Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA4) for Ukraine reported a 93 per cent rise in the estimated damage to the energy sector over the year since the previous assessment released in February 2024, making uninterrupted access to vital services an ongoing challenge for many.

The war continued to disrupt critical health-care services, with health facilities increasingly impacted by attacks. WHO verified 60 attacks on health care in just two months, which killed three people and injured 14 others, including health workers and patients. According to the Health Cluster, a drone struck an ambulance responding to a call in Kherson in early February and strikes damaged clinics in Kramatorsk and Odesa during the reporting period. These attacks have added pressure to an already overstretched health system, making it even harder for people to access essential care. The war has also heightened the urgent need for mental health and trauma support across affected communities.

Strikes on schools and kindergartens continued, preventing children from returning to regular classes. OHCHR verified that 73 education facilities were damaged or destroyed during January and February. Due to ongoing hostilities, at least 600,000 school-age children are compelled to learn remotely, separated from friends and teachers, and at the risk of falling behind in their studies.

As fighting intensified, more residents of front-line communities were forced to flee. In the first two months of 2025, IOM assessed that 20,851 people were displaced from seven front-line oblasts, including 9,819 people displaced from Donetska Oblast, and 4,443 from Khersonka Oblast. Despite the continued danger, approximately 44,000 people remained in assessed locations near Pokrovsk Town in Donetska Oblast, and some 9,600 remained around Kupiansk in Kharkivska Oblast.

The announcement of funding suspensions by key donors in January 2025 led humanitarian actors to scale back or pause the provision of some programming. In response, organizations adjusted their operations – including reducing their presence in some areas – while continuing efforts to secure alternative funding. While mitigation measures are being implemented to minimize the impact of funding cuts, some disruption to operations is expected. Humanitarian partners are now re-prioritizing the response to direct limited resources toward the most urgent needs in four strategic areas: support to front-line communities, emergency response, evacuations, and assistance for displaced populations.