Ukrainians face minus 20C temperatures this winter as Russian strikes knock out power and heating, the UN refugee agency UNHCR warned on October 30, launching its winter appeal.

UNHCR is seeking at least $50mn, $3mn more than it raised last year, to help an estimated 9mn people in Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan through the 2026-27 winter, according to its appeal. In Ukraine it pointed to "accelerating Russian Federation strikes on civilians and humanitarians" and worsening power cuts.

"Resources are scarce and costs are spiralling just as winter looms in the northern hemisphere," said Dominique Hyde, UNHCR's director of external relations. "Millions in these fragile, war-affected countries risk facing the elements without enough protection from the cold. We need to shield them immediately."

Ukraine is entering its fifth winter of full-scale war with Russia once again trying to freeze Ukraine into submission, and the aid budget to cushion it is shrinking. Russia has damaged more than 800 pieces of energy equipment in 350 attacks since September, Kyiv says, while UNHCR is turning to public donors after government funding fell: it sought $8.5bn for its 2026 programmes and had $3bn available as of October 9, AFP reported.

UNHCR's own Ukraine winter plan, published in July, budgets $104mn. Most of it, $80mn, is cash for 310,550 people at UAH19,400 ($428) per household, with $23mn to insulate homes for 78,000 people and $1mn for protection support for 47,100.

Last winter Russian forces hit electricity generation, transmission and distribution facilities at least 423 times between October 2025 and March 2026, according to the UN's human rights monitoring mission, as temperatures fell below minus 20C in Ukraine's coldest winter since 2010. Around 75% of people who left Ukraine in December, January and February cited a lack of electricity, water or heating, UNHCR's border monitoring found.

The UNHCR money is part of a wider inter-agency Winter Response Plan launched on July 22, which seeks $358.4mn to help 2.1mn people across Ukraine between October and March, up from $277.7mn for 1.7mn people last winter. The Ukraine Humanitarian Fund has also allocated $50mn to fill urgent funding gaps.

Some 3.7mn Ukrainians are internally displaced and more than 5.9mn remain refugees abroad, mostly in Europe, according to UNHCR, which estimates that nearly 3mn homes had been damaged or destroyed by the end of 2025. Cities are preparing for the worst: Kyiv has drawn up evacuation lists of residents who could not survive in an unheated flat.

Elsewhere close to 4mn Afghans returned from Pakistan and Iran between January 2025 and July 2026, many with little to live on, while in Lebanon almost 300,000 people will need winter help and UNHCR can reach only half of them for lack of funds.