Ukraine: EU and DRC scale up humanitarian response amid growing needs

The additional EU support comes at a crucial time—as the hostilities intensify and temperatures drop, more families are being pushed beyond their coping capacity.

The top-up will enable DRC to expand its multisector humanitarian intervention across seven oblasts, reaching over 34,000 vulnerable people, including women, children, older persons, and people with disabilities, who continue to bear the brunt of the war.

Relentless shelling of Ukraine exacerbates the humanitarian situation

After almost four years of full-scale war, humanitarian needs in Ukraine remain acute and continue to grow. Conflict intensity has surged again in 2025, driving new waves of displacement and further damaging homes, energy infrastructure, and essential services.

According to DRC’s recent assessments, more than 40% of households report feeling unsafe, while nearly half are unable to meet their basic needs without humanitarian support.

In eastern and southern oblasts, attacks on critical infrastructure have disrupted access to energy, food, and water, leaving families exposed to extreme winter conditions.

The situation is particularly dire for female-headed households, older people, and people with disabilities, who face multiple layers of vulnerability.

Meeting urgent needs through an integrated humanitarian response

The EU-funded top-up ensures that DRC and its partners can rapidly respond to the growing humanitarian crisis, with an emphasis on protection, shelter rehabilitation, and winterisation support.

The modification will include:

• Cash assistance for heating and utilities for over 5,300 individuals to help them stay warm through the winter.
• Light and medium shelter repairs for 405 conflict-affected households whose homes were damaged by shelling.
• Comprehensive protection services for 1,405 individuals, including psychosocial support, legal aid, and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response.
• Humanitarian mine action and victim assistance to support survivors of explosive ordnance (EO) with medical, legal, and psychological care.

These efforts will complement ongoing DRC activities that provide multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA), legal aid, and community-based protection services to displaced and conflict-affected people across Ukraine.