Ukraine

  • Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan
  • From: 01/01/2026 to: 31/12/2026
  • Published: 13/01/2026
  • Coordinated by: OCHA

Ukraine Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026 / Part 2: Humanitarian Response

2.1 Strategic Objectives

Two Strategic Objectives will guide the humanitarian response in 2026:

  1. Strategic Objective (SO1): Provide principled and timely life-saving emergency assistance to the most vulnerable internally displaced and non-displaced war-affected people, ensuring their safety and dignity, with a focus on multisectoral high-severity levels of needs and flexibility to respond to emergencies.  
  2. Strategic Objective (SO2): Enable access to prioritized essential services for the most vulnerable internally displaced and non-displaced war-affected people, with a focus on multisectoral high-severity levels of need to ensure their protection, safety and dignity. 

As part of efforts to advance the Humanitarian Reset in Ukraine, the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) adopted an issue-based approach to sharpen the focus of the response on the key humanitarian needs. While the two Strategic Objectives provide the overarching vision of the response, the following four Strategic Priorities (SP) operationalize this vision:

  1. Strategic Priority (SP) 1: Supporting the most vulnerable who remain close to the front line. This contributes primarily to SO1 (life-saving assistance) and SO2 (access to services) in front-line areas.
  2. Strategic Priority (SP) 2: Responding to vulnerable newly displaced and people evacuated from their places of origin to safer hosting areas, including through transit centres and collective sites. This contributes to SO1 during evacuation and immediate reception, and SO2 in initial settlement.
  3. Strategic Priority (SP) 3: Providing emergency response after strikes. This aligns with SO1 in the immediate 72-hour response and SO2 in medium-term recovery (up to 3 months).
  4. Strategic Priority (SP) 4: Supporting the centrality of protection for vulnerable displaced people and severely vulnerable groups at risk of not being covered by social protection networks. This contributes to SO1 and SO2 through protection-centred, life-saving assistance for vulnerable displaced people and groups missing out on any form of support.

By aligning the priorities with the Strategic Objectives, the approach aims to strengthen coherence, promote targeted interventions and ensure that resources are directed toward the most critical needs of affected people. Each strategic priority is linked to the Strategic Objectives through a package of prioritized, multisectoral response activities.