MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - 2025 was the deadliest year for civilians in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, with more than 2,500 civilians killed and more than 12,000 injured, according to the United Nations.
Speaking in Kyiv at the launch of a humanitarian appeal, Matthias Schmale, the UN's top aid official in Ukraine, highlighted an update from the UN human rights monitoring team on the casualties inflicted by Russia in the war.
According to media reports and official information from the Ukrainian authorities, over the past week alone, Russian forces launched nearly 1,100 attack drones against Ukraine, more than 890 guided aerial bombs and at least 50 missiles of various types - including ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile targeting Lviv in western Ukraine, close to the Polish border.
Amid the intensifying Russian attacks across Ukraine, the UN on Tuesday launched a $2.3 billion humanitarian appeal for 2026 to support 4.1 million of the country's most vulnerable people.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the UN and its partners have supported people in need, from city residents who continue to face repeated drone and missile strikes, to communities close to the frontline and other evacuated away from danger.
'I am speaking of internally displaced people who've been in collective sites for two, three years; I'm speaking of older people and people with limited mobility,' Schmale said outlining some of the priorities of Tuesday's appeal.
In addition to providing core aid relief including food, health care, shelter, protection and cash assistance, other key aims of Tuesday's funding appeal include supporting the evacuation of people in imminent danger - 'heroic work near the front line', Schmale said, of the hundreds of UN-supported partners who carry out this lifesaving work.
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