SP2: Severity, people in need, planned reach and people prioritized
“When I first came to this collective site, I was in very bad condition, both physically and mentally. It was hard to leave my home and to be separated from my mother, and my health was deteriorating. For me, the support from aid workers was extremely valuable, especially the psychologist. At first, it was hard to open up, to speak about what hurt. It took time. But the support I received, and the repairs they made here, changed everything. With the new ramps and bathrooms, I can move around on my own again. Now, with the other residents in the collective site, we are more than neighbours, we have become family,” — Iryna, a displaced woman who fled hostilities in Donetska Oblast and currently resides in Zaporizhzhia.
Summary of Needs
In 2026, some 504,000 people are projected to be displaced, including through evacuations, considering the evolving war dynamics and displacement trends. Escalating hostilities and the shifting front line continued to trigger new waves of displacement in 2025, with over 130,000 people evacuated with the support of the Government or humanitarian actors and many more fleeing on their own.
Approximately 800,000 people reside within 20 km of the front line under evacuation orders, facing a high risk of displacement. These people require multisectoral emergency support during the first six months of their displacement journey, from front-line areas to transit centres and onward to relocation areas, including collective sites. While the Government leads on evacuations, humanitarian assistance remains essential in complementing state capacities, ensuring specialized assistance for older people, people with disabilities and families with children, when appropriate.
According to the UNHCR Protection Survey, 14 per cent of people considering movement to safer areas will need help to evacuate. Vulnerable people remaining in unsafe areas also require accessible and trusted information to make informed decisions about their displacement or to prepare for evacuations. This includes information on the availability of services in destination areas. Older people and people with disabilities, representing 47 per cent of this group, are particularly vulnerable and often the last to leave due to the disruption of their key sources of stability, including their homes, personal assets, social payments and community networks. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy data, as of January 2025, 42 social care facilities that continue to operate in front-line areas host approximately 67,000 residents that require urgent relocation, but reception capacities in hosting locations for evacuees are overstretched. Children are exposed to specific risks, including family separation, psychological distress and disruption of learning process, underscoring the need for specialized child-friendly approaches and services. Women, girls and the vulnerable population groups are exposed to increased risks of GBV and exploitation.
After fleeing their homes, IDPs evacuated by state or humanitarian actors typically pass through transit centres before relocating further. Adequate and accessible reception capacity at transit centres remains critical, particularly for people with mobility needs, children and women at risk. According to IOM and CCCM data, 60 per cent of assessed transit centres have critical accessibility barriers for persons with disabilities and older people, while 40 per cent operate in unsuitable buildings, where congestion regularly occurs due to high turnover and limited residential capacity. Before continuing their onward movement, newly displaced people require stabilization and access to critical assistance to reach safer areas. This includes short-term accommodation at transit centre, food, hygiene items, dignity kits and non-food items (shared and individual kits), integrated primary health-care services as well as essential protection services, such as restoring or replacing personal documentation, access to reliable information and referrals, psychosocial support and case management.
In relocation areas, including collective sites where the most vulnerable often settle, needs remain acute, including for those who did not pass through transit centres. In 2025, at least 14,000 displaced people were reported as new arrivals in over 800 collective sites countrywide, where 48,000 people are residing. Over one-third of new arrivals (39 per cent) were registered in Dnipropetrovska and Kharkivska oblasts, while central and western oblasts continue to receive displaced people at and outside of collective sites. The challenge of securing spaces in collective sites is compounded by sub-standard living conditions, limited privacy, and lack of accessible infrastructure and specialized services in many facilities in both rural and urban communities, leading to increased protection risks, in particular heightened risks of GBV. As evidenced through consultations with Organizations of People with Disabilities and IDP Councils, challenges in securing appropriate interim accommodation and accessing services, especially for older people, people with disabilities, children and women at risk, may also discourage people from evacuating despite the risks.
Scope of Strategic Priority and Managing Overlaps
Strategic Priority 2 addresses the immediate humanitarian needs stemming from new displacement during the first six months, including evacuations from areas where people face heightened risks due to escalating hostilities or deteriorating living conditions from the war. Its scope is countrywide, encompassing areas with evacuation orders and other high-risk locations along the displacement routes used by people moving toward safety, and the receiving areas where displaced people arrive, including in the central and western regions.
Strategic Priority 2 focuses on people evacuated through organized movements led by government or humanitarian actors, those fleeing from occupied territories, those protected under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), released and repatriated as part of humanitarian agreements, and vulnerable internally displaced people who leave by their own means to reach safer areas—often not necessarily having passed through transit centres—without support networks, essential items or access to reliable information. It prioritizes those facing the greatest barriers to safe movement and timely access to services, including older persons, persons with disabilities, children at risk, survivors of protection violations and single-headed households.
Strategic Priority 2 is delineated from the other strategic priorities to ensure coherence and avoid duplication. It focuses strictly on the immediate phase of affected people movement from front-line and high-risk areas and the short-term reception support that follows. It remains distinct from Strategic Priority 1 and Strategic Priority 3, which address needs of people who stay in high-risk areas or are directly affected by strikes respectively. However, the two priorities are linked to Strategic Priority 3 in areas where large-scale strikes trigger evacuations or displacement. Assistance for people in prolonged displacement—beyond the initial six-month period—is addressed under the Strategic Priority 4, which enables protection-oriented assistance and services for those displaced people whose risks and vulnerabilities continued to aggravate after the short-term reception support concludes.
Response Strategy
In 2026, the humanitarian needs of some 504,000 people who are estimated to be displaced, including through evacuations, will be addressed under Strategic Priority 2. The multisectoral response for newly displaced people, including evacuees, is designed to address the needs of the most vulnerable at each stage of displacement. Prioritized activities focus on the timely provision of life-saving assistance to people moving from high-risk areas, ensuring their safety, dignity and access to essential services, in line with HNRP Strategic Objective 1. The response is structured around three integrated multisectoral packages:
- Response package 1: Humanitarian support to evacuation from high-risk areas,
- Response package 2: Immediate assistance and stabilization at transit centres and interim evacuation points, and
- Response package 3: Support to onward movement and initial settlement in safer hosting communities, including for those who are vulnerable and did not pass through transit centres.
Response package 1 will prioritize support to safe and dignified movement for people at risk, including tailored support to informed decision-making. In line with the Guidance on Humanitarian Evacuations, humanitarian assistance will complement state-led evacuation systems through established local-level coordination mechanisms. The humanitarian response will follow a principled, voluntary and inclusive approach, ensuring non-discrimination, family unity and decisions guided by the best interests of the child. It will take into account the specific needs of each person, including specialized evacuations for older people and people with disabilities, psychological first aid, support for the transport of personal belongings and livestock to help safeguard livelihoods, and access to life-saving primary health care and referrals to health facilities in hosting areas. Along evacuation routes, small in-kind distributions—such as food and water—will help meet people’s immediate needs. Upon request from health authorities, health partners will assist the relocation of health facilities to safer areas. In collaboration with the Ministry of Social Policy, dedicated programmatic models requiring humanitarian contributions will be operationalized to enable evacuations of the most vulnerable people residing in institutions in front-line areas.
Response package 2 will support stabilization at transit centres, providing multisectoral services, in-kind assistance and cash support to address urgent needs and facilitate onward movement to hosting areas, including collective sites and private accommodation. Adequate reception capacities will be strengthened and maintained through the installation of adequate sleeping spaces for short-term stays; disability-friendly infrastructure, trained personnel to assist various vulnerable groups, including older people, people with disabilities, children, women at risk and others; and winterization/summer measures to ensure resilient and safe premises. In-kind distributions will include emergency and hygiene items, like medicines and medical supplies, in addition to services for management of various serious and life-threatening conditions, specific supplies for women, girls, children and people with disabilities, pregnant and lactating women to maintain their dignity, hot meals, non-food items and food kits to support onward travel and initial settlement. Critical services offered at transit centres include access to safe water, sanitation, heating and hygiene facilities, initiation of child-friendly, disability-sensitive and survivor-centred services, including legal assistance, case management and other forms of social and psychosocial support, information provision on rights and access to services, building further movement plans, and search for suitable accommodation in collective sites. Coordination with local authorities will remain central, as they increasingly assume leadership in managing transit centres, as reflected in the new legislation on evacuations.
In the initial settlement phase, the Response package 3 will focus on safe and dignified initial settlement in communities and collective sites across the country and accompanying services for the most vulnerable newly displaced. This phase is essential to prevent secondary displacement and mitigate push factors to return to unsafe areas due to unmet needs. The response package will provide time-bound assistance for up to six months, ensuring continuity of care, sustaining critical livelihoods, facilitating access to state services and supporting pathways to more sustainable and appropriate accommodation options. Services include restoration of personal documentation, comprehensive primary health care and psychological support, social support services and community-based interventions, including referrals to specialized health facilities, education, including continuity of learning, and social protection systems—services that cannot be effectively delivered in transit centre settings. Ensuring sufficient reception capacities with adequate risk mitigation measures in place, minimum living standards and accessibility in collective sites for vulnerable people who cannot access alternative accommodation options will remain a critical component, while acknowledging that collective sites are temporary accommodation for displaced people and not the final stage of the displacement journey. These people represent approximately 15 per cent of those passing through transit centres, as well as vulnerable people who fled using by their own means directly to collective sites. Support includes targeted shelter repairs, improvements to accessibility and provision of essential non-food items. Beyond collective sites in communities where IDPs settle, transitional shelter measures will be implemented, such as rental market assistance for those of employment age and repairs to substandard housing where IDPs may be settled due to the lack of alternatives.
Across all stages, cash assistance will be prioritized, wherever feasible, to enhance people’s dignity and decision-making, while recognizing that urgent needs may require in-kind support and direct service delivery. Humanitarian assistance will complement government systems, addressing gaps where state capacities are overstretched. Strengthening local capacities, ensuring meaningful participation and functional referral and feedback mechanisms are essential to ensure a safe, dignified and inclusive response under this Strategic Priority.
Targeting and Prioritization
Strategic Priority 2 prioritizes timely, life-saving support to people facing the highest risks as a direct consequence of their recent displacement. Geographic prioritization remains flexible and is guided by real-time monitoring of hostilities, government evacuation orders, disruptions to essential services and pressures on transit and receiving areas along displacement routes. Within these areas, the response prioritizes the most vulnerable people, including older people, people with disabilities, children, single-headed households and those at risk due to recent displacement, including those unable to evacuate safely without support. Additional consideration is given to people who fled using their own means and who lack access to information, social networks or essential items, and who often require immediate humanitarian support upon arrival due to their vulnerability and risks. People who evacuate from the temporarily occupied territories and survivors of protection violations are high needs groups that require special consideration.
SP2: Overall people in need, planned reach, people prioritized and requirements by cluster
References
- The Government of Ukraine. Governmental Data.