Global perspective Human stories

FROM THE FIELD: Enduring freezing winter in a war zone

Living conditions of people in the conflict area in Eastern Ukraine. Stefania has been given four tons of coal by UNHCR, helping her to keep warm and cook.
© UNHCR/Anastasia Vlasova
Living conditions of people in the conflict area in Eastern Ukraine. Stefania has been given four tons of coal by UNHCR, helping her to keep warm and cook.

FROM THE FIELD: Enduring freezing winter in a war zone

Humanitarian Aid

In Ukraine, extreme winter cold is making life harder for thousands of people whose lives have already been torn apart by conflict. Hoping to find safer places to live, families in the region have had to endure a battle for survival, in buildings without heat or electricity.
 

Olena at her apartment near the contact line with seven-month-old Yelyzavet, in the conflict area in Eastern Ukraine. © UNHCR/Anastasia Vlasova

Since 2014, conflict in Ukraine has forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR. After five years, many of the displaced are often forced to choose between buying food and medicine or paying for heating.

In 2018 the agency stepped up the distribution of aid, including clothing, fuel and cash, to thousands of displaced households in eastern Ukraine.

Read more here, about four displaced Ukrainians who will not be left out in the cold this winter.