The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Ongoing Russian attacks in Ukraine force frontline areas to empty: UNHCR
With Ukrainian cities still reeling from this week’s deadly Russian missile and drone attacks, communities on the front line continue to be targeted too, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. “We also see attacks on frontline regions increasing and it's, as always, civilians that are bearing the highest cost of the war,” said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine.
Since January, more than 3,500 newly displaced people have transited through a centre in Pavlohrad towards central Ukraine and last month, more than 4,200 evacuees arrived at another centre in the northeastern city of Sumy, where UNHCR and partners provide humanitarian support. In total more than 200,000 people have been evacuated or displaced from frontline areas between August last year and the start of 2025. These numbers are only a fraction of all those made homeless by the violence and mandatory evacuation orders issued by Kyiv in the face of ongoing Russian aggression.
The majority of those being moved are the elderly with low mobility or disabilities, families with few resources and children. In many cases, they stayed until the end because they didn't want to leave everything they had behind, UNHCR said.
It has now been more than 38 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
On Thursday, UN aid agencies led condemnation of Russian missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv that killed 12 people and injured 84, one of a wave of attacks across the country that point to an intensification of the conflict since the start of the year - and growing humanitarian needs for refugees.
“Those deadly Russian attacks have intensified alarmingly since January,” said Ms. Billing, speaking to journalists in Geneva via videolink from Kyiv. “More than 1,000 people have been directly affected as their homes have been damaged or completely destroyed. Civilian infrastructure were also hit in several other regions yesterday, including in Kharkiv, where I myself woke up around 2am in the morning to the loud sound of explosions."
According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, civilian casualties in Ukraine were 70 per cent higher in March this year compared to 12 months earlier. In recent weeks, large-scale attacks on cities including Sumy, Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Marhanets and more have killed and injured civilians and caused damage to residential areas and people’s homes, medical facilities, schools and other infrastructure.
The war has left four million people internally displaced since 24 February 2022 when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine. Many of those uprooted have yet to find affordable housing and a new job - which is why support from humanitarian organizations is so crucial, the UNHCR official insisted.
“One of the main things we deliver as part of the emergency response are emergency shelter materials that help people cover broken windows, roofs and doors,” Ms. Billing said.
Since 2022, UNHCR has supported around 450,000 people making repairs on their homes. The UN agency also provides psychological first aid and legal support to those who have lost their identity documents and emergency cash assistance to help people cover most basic needs.
But more support is needed to sustain a timely and predictable response to the many calls for assistance the agency receives from the affected people and the authorities. “UNHCR and our partners, we have the capacity and reach to efficiently deliver, provided we receive the necessary funding,” insisted Ms. Billing.
ast year, US funding for UNHCR accounted for around 40 per cent of its overall contributions. In 2025, UNHCR requires a total of $803.5 million to address the emergency situation in Ukraine. Today, the appeal is 25 per cent funded. During the winter period, the agency had to put some of its programmes partially on-hold, covering psychosocial support, emergency shelter material and cash assistance.
Ends
Story: “Ukraine attacks - UNHCR” – Friday 25 April 2025
Speaker:
- Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine
TRT: 02’48”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 25 April 2025 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva Press briefing
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
- Wide shot of the podium with speakers at the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine: “On 24 of April, Kyiv’s residents woke up to another deadly Russian attack and these have really intensified alarmingly since the start of this year. Just in Kyiv 12 people were killed as a result of these attacks across the city, 84 were injured and more than 1,000 people have been directly affected as their homes have been damaged or completely destroyed. But civilians and infrastructure were also hit in several other regions yesterday, including in Kharkiv, where I myself woke up around 02:00am in the morning to the loud sound of explosions.”
- Cutaway - Medium shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine: “The UN's human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine reports that civilian casualties in Ukraine were in March this year 70 per cent higher compared to March last year.”
- Wide shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine: “One of the main things we deliver as part of this emergency response are emergency shelter materials that help people cover broken windows, roofs and doors. And since 2022, we have supported around 450,000 people with such materials. We're also, as part of this emergency response, providing psychological first aid.”
- Cutaway lateral shot of the press conference room and journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine: “We also see attacks on frontline regions increasing and it's, as always, civilians that are bearing the highest cost of the war. The escalation of hostilities along frontline areas has forced more civilians to flee and prompted the Ukrainian authorities to issue new mandatory evacuation orders.”
- Medium shot of journalists at the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine: “More than 200,000 people have been evacuated or displaced from frontline areas between August last year and the start of 2025.”
- Close shot of journalists listening.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Ukraine: “What we see is that more is really needed to sustain a timely and a predictable response to the calls from the affected people and the authorities. UNHCR and our partners, we have the capacity and the reach to efficiently deliver, provided we receive the necessary funding.”
- Various shots of the press conference room.
MORE INFO:
Download video material - B-Roll: https://media.unhcr.org/Share/vkpxnn4480671cn71ceccra5bc4jwm76Briefing Notes: https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-responds-latest-wave-deadly-attacks-ukraine?auHash=0v20qkeGqY777svSWBvb3KHnlmsR71TzPNG6bNG5CCI
Download video material - B-Roll: https://media.unhcr.org/Share/vkpxnn4480671cn71ceccra5bc4jwm76
Briefing Notes: https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unhcr-responds-latest-wave-deadly-attacks-ukraine?auHash=0v20qkeGqY777svSWBvb3KHnlmsR71TzPNG6bNG5CCI
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Displacement on the rise in Yemen as fighting continues - UNHCR
As hostilities worsen in Yemen, more people have been fleeing their homes, further intensifying the humanitarian crisis within the region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine - WHO
A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the UN health agency to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage in the last three months.
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UN WOMEN , WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.