“It is just another day of survival”, Yana, our colleague in Kyiv, told us on a crackly internet line that kept cutting, as electricity in her home has been severely interrupted.

For the past month, she and her family have been getting just over one hour a day of steady electricity on good days.

Yana is not alone. Across Ukraine many, among them children and older people, are impacted; with their numbers increasing as attacks continue daily, affecting areas far away from the front line.

Today marks four years since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and nearly 12 years since the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory. For many years now, people in the war-torn country have struggled to get by and protect themselves and their children.

Since the beginning of 2026, attacks have intensified, leading to severe cuts in the delivery of and access to basic services including electricity, water and heating. All the while, temperatures have remained sub zero and regularly below minus 20 celsius.

People and institutions are beyond drained. Families are exhausted as they live in uncertainty and fear.

UNOPS continues to work with partners to support the restoration of services.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, UNOPS has supported efforts to keep people and the buildings they live and work in warm by providing generators and bolstering infrastructure. We have purchased and delivered over $45 million worth of heating equipment over the past year, helping municipal workers keep the heating on for hundreds of thousands of families in conflict-affected regions.

Our teams have procured critical health supplies, they have repaired damaged and destroyed schools, and refurbished homes.

Much, much more is needed to help the people of Ukraine overcome the massive destruction and trauma, rebuilding their lives and shattered communities. While our teams continue to work and respond, we call for a long overdue unconditional ceasefire that would put an end to the suffering and reach a political peaceful solution to this conflict. The time has come to put an end to this conflict, violence will breed more violence.

For more information please contact:

• Juliette Touma, UNOPS Global Director of Communications, +45 53 52 01 27, juliettet@unops.org

For more information on UNOPS work in Ukraine, see here.

Notes to Editors

• In Ukraine, UNOPS works closely with national and municipal governments, UN agencies and organisations, and other partners, including the European Union, the governments of Denmark, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the World Bank, King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) and others.

• Last month, our EU-funded school repairs project completed repairs at 21 war-damaged education facilities in the north eastern Kharkiv region, allowing in-person classes to resume for thousands of children.

• Alongside this, we support communities with water towers, school buses, firefighting equipment, and medical supplies.

• Funded by the World Bank, UNOPS helped restore Ukraine’s rail network with essential repair equipment. This included supplying modular bridges, adding more trains to Ukrainian Railways, and providing vehicles and equipment for railway repairs.

• UNOPS teams continue to raise awareness of the dangers and risks of explosive ordnance and support national mine action efforts .

• An updated joint Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA5) puts the total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine at almost $588 billion over the next decade. This is nearly 3 times the estimated nominal GDP of Ukraine for 2025. The report is published by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the United Nations.