Published on: 2026-10-30
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
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October 30, 2026 Humanitarian aid
Due to a lack of funding and a sharp rise in energy prices, at least 9 million residents of four war-affected countries – Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, and Afghanistan – require additional assistance to survive this winter. This was reported on Friday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which announced the launch of its annual winter fundraising campaign.
To partially offset the sharp budget cuts, UNHCR aims to raise at least 50 million dollars for winter assistance in 2026–2027 – 3 million more than last year. The campaign targets private individuals and business representatives.
“Resources are scarce, and expenses are rapidly increasing — all this on the eve of winter in the Northern Hemisphere,” stated Dominique Hyde, the UNHCR Director of External Relations.
Millions of people suffer from the recent surge in energy and food prices, live in temporary shelters, and lack fuel, warm clothing, and blankets. Even before winter, the situation of displaced persons and the host communities worsened due to cuts in financial assistance as well as health and education programs.
Ukraine: the fifth winter of war
This will be Ukraine’s fifth winter of full-scale war. Temperatures may drop to minus 20 degrees, and the increasing strikes by the Russian Federation and power outages bring new difficulties to the population, including about 4 million internally displaced persons. Last winter, strikes on energy facilities occurred at least 423 times. The UNHCR winter plan provides cash assistance to approximately 310,000 people and housing insulation for 80,000. According to UNHCR monitoring, 75 percent of people who left Ukraine from December 2025 to February 2026 cited the lack of electricity, water, or heating as the reason for leaving.
Svetlana from Dnipro told UNHCR staff about how a drone struck her apartment last winter. A few seconds before the strike, she managed to grab her son and get down to the basement. “Then I saw glass scattered everywhere. If the child had been in the room at that moment, he would have had almost no chance to survive…,” she said. The funds collected by UNHCR will go, among other things, to materials for repairing the destroyed housing.
Assistance for those returning to Afghanistan
Afghanistan is also facing a difficult winter: people are returning to the country in large numbers, humanitarian needs are enormous, and funding is catastrophically insufficient. From January 2025 to July 2026, nearly 4 million people returned from Pakistan and Iran, many of whom have almost no means to start life anew. According to the UN, in 2026, 4.2 million people will need housing assistance, and nearly a third of surveyed families reported lacking winter clothing. Due to lack of funds, assistance is limited, including cash payments to returnees, materials for housing repairs, blankets, and heaters.
“Families have to choose between heating, food, and medical care. Last winter, many burned cardboard, paper, or plastic waste to keep warm because they could not afford coal and firewood,” Hyde said. “Children are especially vulnerable, and we fear that, just like last winter, there will be many cases of pneumonia and respiratory illnesses again.”
Syria and Lebanon
The situation in Syria provides grounds for optimism: in the two years after the fall of the Assad regime, millions of people have returned there from neighboring countries. However, without additional funding for the most essential needs – shelter, clothing, heating fuel – the situation of those returning this winter could become increasingly precarious.
In Lebanon, winter assistance is expected to be needed by 280,000 people. However, due to lack of funds, UNHCR can support only half of those in need. Diesel fuel prices have nearly doubled compared to the period before the regional escalation in March 2026. Families report that aid which previously lasted for most of the winter now only lasts for a few weeks.
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