The issue-based approach forms the overarching response strategy, framed around the four strategic priorities to deliver prioritized multisectoral life-saving emergency assistance and enable access to essential services for the most vulnerable displaced and non-displaced people affected by the war. Each priority is linked to the two Strategic Objectives through prioritized multisectoral response activities.
- Strategic Priority 1: Supporting the most vulnerable who remain close to the front line (0–50 km) will ensure sustained life-saving assistance for civilians facing intense conflict conditions, protection risks and collapse in basic services. Priority will be given to those in the 0-20 km zone considered most vulnerable and in need of assistance, with emphasis on the older people, people with disabilities, women and children at risk, and repeatedly displaced populations who are unable to leave further to safer areas. For people in the 20-50 km zone, further vulnerability criteria will be applied to non-displaced war-affected people to determine those to be assisted; all IDPs are considered vulnerable. The delineation of the front line reflects evolving patterns of the changing warfare, the varying intensity and expanding reach of hostilities and the precision of attacks. While the front line remains relatively static in the north and south (along the Dnipro River), it is highly fluid and dynamic in the east, requiring adaptive responses to changing access, security conditions and population movements. The response will contribute to Strategic Objectives 1 and 2 through immediate multisectoral life-saving assistance and enabling access to essential services to prevent further deterioration of humanitarian conditions.
- Strategic Priority 2: Responding to vulnerable newly displaced and people evacuated will focus on three types of short-term assistance provided for up to six months, across the displacement journey from the places of origin to destinations in safer hosting areas, including through transit centres and collective sites: (i) support for safe and dignified evacuation from high-risk areas, enabling organized, protection-sensitive evacuation support; (ii) immediate assistance and coordination at transit centres to ensure safe and temporary accommodation and access to basic services for people arriving from front-line areas; and (iii) targeted time-bound support for newly displaced families in hosting locations, including collective sites, providing assistance and services. This assistance will be delivered nationwide, depending on the location of receiving oblasts designated by the Government and will include vulnerable people who are displaced or evacuated independently. Beyond the six-month period, assistance for the most vulnerable people remaining in the collective sites and in host communities will be provided under Strategic Priority 4. This Priority supports both Strategic Objectives 1 and 2 by prioritizing safe and dignified evacuations, immediate safe temporary accommodation and access to essential services in transit centres, collective sites and targeted time-bound assistance in hosting locations upon arrival.
- Strategic Priority 3: Providing emergency response after strikes will focus on immediate emergency interventions to direct impact of strikes on civilians within 72 hours where local capacity is lacking or constrained (Strategic Objective 1) and medium-term support to indirect impact of strikes up to three months, including light repair of essential civilian infrastructure and continued humanitarian support to essential services to complement and link with government response (Strategic Objective 2). The humanitarian community will provide aid across the country when the scale, intensity or frequency of strikes exceeds the response capacity of local authorities and communities.
- Strategic Priority 4: Supporting the centrality of protection for vulnerable displaced people and severely vulnerable groups at risk of not being covered by social protection networks will focus on the final stage of displacement. This includes the provision of life-saving continuity of care and the removal of barriers for vulnerable groups to access services, preventing vulnerability and risk aggravation, mitigating the risk of further harm, secondary displacement and returns to unsafe areas, and supporting integration into local communities and state services. It has a countrywide focus and contributes to Strategic Objectives 1 and 2.
A clear delineation of overlaps and linkages between the strategic priorities has been applied by defining the geographic focus, events and vulnerability criteria for people in need of assistance under each strategic priority. This approach allows for flexibility to adjust the response to potential shifts between the priorities due to changes in conflict intensity, geographic scope or rising vulnerabilities among specific population groups.
The response across the strategic priorities will focus on two main groups: internally displaced and war-affected non-displaced people, with a special focus on the most vulnerable, including older people, people with disabilities, women, children and women at risk. For each strategic priority, vulnerability criteria will guide the identification of those to be assisted.
Assistance will be delivered through services, in-kind and cash/voucher modalities, with a preference for cash wherever feasible and appropriate. To support these efforts, a unified approach to cash assistance has been developed, addressing generic needs across the priorities while applying distinct cash transfer values for each strategic priority where appropriate. Under the issue-based approach, delivery of assistance by clusters will be organized around multisectoral response packages identified for each of the Strategic Priorities to improve efficiency and impact of the response. At the operational level, clusters will continue to provide technical guidance, quality assurance, analysis and coordination with partners to deliver the assistance in line with the evolution of the coordination architecture introduced through the implementation of the Humanitarian Reset.
In 2026, the humanitarian response will prioritize areas of highest severity while ensuring flexibility for countrywide interventions. Planned assistance will prioritize the hardest-hit front-line areas and northern border regions, particularly Sumska and Chernihivska oblasts, where needs are at severity levels 4 and 5. A countrywide response will cover newly displaced vulnerable people during initial evacuation, provision of emergency support after strikes, and supporting protection assistance for vulnerable displaced people and severely at-risk groups who may not be covered by social protection networks, depending on trends and frequency of events. Analysis of needs in the occupied territories has been integrated under the relevant strategic priorities, following a rights-based approach and using available data.
The 2026 HNRP is structured to clearly differentiate between humanitarian needs within the scope of the Plan requiring immediate, life-saving or protection-focused assistance, and transitional needs and activities that lie at the intersection with recovery or development. These needs and activities have been identified for advocacy with development actors and the Government. The third category of needs and activities that should be transferred to development or recovery actors has been excluded from the Plan.
Localization
Local and national organizations in Ukraine, including civil society organizations and volunteer networks, remain central to humanitarian response, often acting as first responders, particularly in high-risk and front-line areas. In 2025, small national organizations were disproportionately affected by the sharp funding cuts despite their critical role in the response. Continued advocacy is essential to safeguard and further promote the role, presence and leadership of national NGOs.
Under the Humanitarian Reset, subnational operational coordination was streamlined to promote inclusivity, transparency and equal representation and participation of national partners in the newly established Humanitarian Operational Coordination Groups activated in three hubs where humanitarian needs are highest. The groups are empowered to make operational decisions and are directly accountable to the HCT. The role of local actors was also strengthened through the activation of Area-Based Coordination (ABC) established in 2024 to cover coordination gaps in hard-to-reach areas in Sumska Oblast in the north and Khersonska Hromada in the south. These platforms, co-chaired by local actors, link first responders to the broader humanitarian architecture and promote collaboration, ensuring responses are rooted in local realities.
In 2025, the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF) introduced Area-Based Allocation models to decentralize funding prioritization processes and enhance national NGO decision-making in UHF allocations by leveraging their experience, knowledge and expertise at the local level in Kharkivska and Khersonska oblasts. The UHF continues to serve as a critical funding instrument for national organizations through several initiatives that support national and local organizations. In 2024, nearly 60 per cent of all allocated funds—US$96 million— were provided to national organizations. In 2025, this share was increased to almost 70 per cent—UHF allocated $134 million to the national NGOs.
Building on these gains, the HCT is developing a Localization Action Plan to further institutionalize progress made since 2022, including through the UHF. The Action Plan will prioritize enabling Ukrainian local leadership in strategic and operational coordination forums, increasing the systematic use of local capacities across the response and improving equitable access to decision-making, resources and partnerships. In 2026, under the leadership of the HCT and in line with the Grand Bargain and the commitments of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the humanitarian community will continue to strengthen institutional capacity and advance local leadership of Ukrainian humanitarian organizations to respond effectively to humanitarian needs.