Ukraine’s Deepening Displacement Crisis: When War Outlasts Solidarity

Ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, former Iraqi President and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih warned that Ukrainians displaced by war still need sustained international solidarity, protection, emergency assistance, and a credible path to peace. After the harshest winter of the war so far, repeated strikes on civilian and energy infrastructure have left families without reliable electricity, heating, housing, and access to essential services. Salih’s appeal was clear: Ukrainian resilience must not become an excuse for international fatigue.

Displaced International views Ukraine’s crisis not only as a test of humanitarian response but also as a test of the international community’s willingness to protect civilians, uphold refugee law, support host communities, and pursue a just and durable peace that addresses the root cause of displacement.

Key Figures at a Glance

• Refugees and asylum seekers: More than 5 million Ukrainians remain displaced across borders, primarily in Europe.
• Internally displaced persons: Approximately 3.7 to 3.8 million people remain internally displaced inside Ukraine.
• Returnees at renewed risk: About 325,000 returnees risk displacement again as winter damage, blackouts, insecurity, and damaged housing deepen vulnerability.
• Humanitarian needs: Millions inside Ukraine continue to need urgent assistance, with frontline communities, older persons, women, children, and survivors of conflict-related violence facing heightened risk.

International Support Is Diminishing

Compared with the overwhelming solidarity that followed the 2022 invasion, international backing for Ukraine has become more uneven. The 2026 General Assembly resolution on “Support for lasting peace in Ukraine” passed with 107 votes in favor, but the margin was far narrower than the earlier 141-state condemnation of Russia’s invasion. The change does not mean outright support for Russia has broadened dramatically; rather, it reveals a growing pattern of abstentions, diplomatic caution, and war fatigue among some States.

That shift became especially visible when the United States joined dozens of countries in abstaining from the 2026 resolution, arguing that lowering the rhetoric could make a ceasefire more attainable. In February 2025, Washington had also broken with many European allies by voting against a Ukrainian-backed resolution on advancing a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine. The diplomatic change has coincided with uncertainty over further U.S. funding and the continuing drawdown of previously approved assistance under the current administration.

The broader aid picture is also worrying. Tracking of international support shows that overall allocations have dropped from previous peaks, even as Ukraine’s humanitarian and recovery needs remain immense. Europe has continued to provide substantial support, but questions persist about whether it can fully replace declining or delayed assistance from other major donors. Political changes in Europe, including developments in Hungary, have added another layer of uncertainty. Meanwhile, UNHCR’s emergency appeal remains significantly underfunded, leaving frontline relief and protection programs dependent on delayed or insufficient relief.

Displacement Remains Deep and Unstable

According to UNHCR, millions of Ukrainians remain displaced across borders, with millions more internally displaced inside Ukraine. These figures reflect a crisis that has evolved but not ended. Many Ukrainians have returned since the initial waves of flight, but return should not be confused with safety, recovery, or durable reintegration. IOM data show that more than 4.4 million people have returned from displacement, yet hundreds of thousands remain at risk of being displaced again inside Ukraine.

Returns are being shaped less by stability than by exhaustion, economic pressure, family separation, legal uncertainty abroad, and the urgent need to check on homes and relatives. For many families, the choice is not between safety and return, but between different forms of insecurity.

Frontline Communities Face the Gravest Risks

Russia continues to occupy large areas of Ukrainian territory, including extensive areas seized in the Donbas since 2022. Although the pace of Russian advances has slowed compared with the early phase of the invasion, the war remains active, destructive, and deeply destabilizing for civilians in frontline regions and occupied areas. Analysis of Russia’s grinding war underscores that battlefield changes have slowed but have not removed the immediate danger facing communities living near active combat zones over recent years.

IOM Director General Amy Pope has warned that resilience alone cannot carry families through another winter of blackouts and freezing temperatures. Her message is central to the protection challenge: “safe housing, reliable energy, and essential services” are fundamental to safety, survival, and dignity. Since 2022, IOM has assisted millions of Ukrainians and supported those displaced in neighboring nations, but the scale of need continues to exceed available assistance. Funding cuts also threaten the women-led organizations that provide health, protection, and emergency services to survivors and vulnerable families across Ukraine.

Food Insecurity and Health Risks Are Rising

Hunger and disease are worsening the emergency, especially for the millions of people living near the front line as of late 2025. Nearly 2 million Ukrainians have been identified as high-priority cases for humanitarian food assistance, with many living within 50 kilometers of active combat in regions such as Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy, and Kherson. Older and dependent residents are disproportionately represented in these areas, making food delivery, clean water, mobility support, and home-based care urgent priorities.

Ukraine’s health system is also under sustained pressure. Reduced immunization coverage, weakened outbreak surveillance, damage to facilities, and disrupted supply chains raise the risk of infectious diseases, including measles, hepatitis A, and rabies. WHO has warned that millions require health assistance, while mental health and psychosocial needs remain severe after years of attacks, bereavement, displacement, and daily uncertainty across the affected population.

Displaced International Calls for Swift Action

• Move Beyond the Language of “Burden” to Shared, Practical Responsibility: Humanitarian aid must be designed so that displaced people receive protection and assistance while host communities are also supported. Refugees and internally displaced persons must never be treated as political liabilities or abstract numbers; they are human beings entitled to safety, agency, and dignity.
• Demand Absolute Compliance with International Humanitarian Law: All parties must comply strictly with international humanitarian law. Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians, homes, hospitals, schools, and energy infrastructure must stop, and humanitarian actors must have safe, unhindered, and unconditional access to communities under immediate threat.
• Scale Up Flexible and Predictable Humanitarian Financing: Donors should move beyond volatile short-term pledges and provide multi-year, flexible funding that allows UN agencies, local partners, and frontline responders to plan, staff, procure, and deliver assistance before needs become catastrophic.
• Prioritize Winterization and Infrastructure Protection: Safe housing, heating, emergency power, local energy grids, and repair of battered utilities are not luxuries. They are core protection measures that can prevent renewed displacement among families, older persons, persons with disabilities, and returnees.
• Safeguard Frontline Communities and At-Risk Elders: Food, clean water, cash assistance, hygiene items, medical supplies, and material support should be heavily targeted to communities within 50 kilometers of active combat, where older and dependent residents face disproportionate barriers to evacuation and assistance.
• Prevent a Frontline Health and Psychosocial Collapse: Immunization campaigns, infectious disease surveillance, basic medical supply chains, rehabilitation, and mental health services must be expanded urgently. Trauma is not a secondary effect of this war; it is one of its defining humanitarian consequences.
• Sustain and Protect Women-Led Support Networks: Women-led and grassroots organizations must be funded, protected, and included in response planning. Their work is often the first line of protection for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, women-headed households, children, older persons, and other at-risk groups.

A Message of Resilience

At Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti, European leaders joined President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska in honoring those who lost their lives on the front lines. In his address marking four years since the full-scale invasion, President Zelenskyy placed Ukraine’s endurance in its people: “Our eyes may be tired, but our backs are unbroken.”

That resilience deserves more than admiration. It demands protection, sustained assistance, accountability for attacks on civilians, and renewed diplomacy toward a just and lasting peace. For Ukraine’s displaced millions, the emergency is not over; it is entering another dangerous phase in which international resolve will determine whether families can remain safe, return with dignity, or be forced to flee again.

This update was prepared by Joshua Marsh, a research and advocacy intern, covering South America and Europe at Displaced International.

Related article by Joshua Marsh: Landslide in Hungary: Why Magyar’s Victory Brings a Cautious Hope for Ukrainian Refugees