The UN Refugee Agency

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global inter-governmental organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people.

We work to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safety after having fled persecution, violence, war or disaster at home. Since 1950, we have responded to multiple crises on multiple continents, and provided legal support and vital assistance to refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced and stateless people.

We help to save lives and build better futures for millions forced from home.

UNHCR has been present in Ukraine since 1994, when the Agency supported the repatriation of Crimean Tatars, and concluded a Host Country Agreement with the Government of Ukraine in 1996. In line with its mandate, UNHCR provides protection services and assistance to help refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), war-affected and stateless people access their rights and essential services and find sustainable solutions. In 2014, UNHCR scaled-up its presence in eastern Ukraine to provide humanitarian services and assistance to people impacted by the war.  Following the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation in February 2022, UNHCR has further expanded its operation and is now present in Chernivtsi, Dnipro, Kyiv, L’viv, Poltava, Odesa, Uzhhorod, Vinnytsia, as well as in Donetsk and Luhansk in areas under the temporary military control of the Russian Federation.

UNHCR supports and complements the Ukrainian authorities’ response through three main areas of intervention:

(1) delivery of protection services, community-based protection activities and advocacy work,

(2) emergency shelter and housing assistance and promotion of access to dignified temporary and medium-term housing solutions, and

(3) support in addressing the basic needs of affected people through cash and distributions of essential items (NFIs).

Ahead of the winter, UNHCR launched a winterization response as part of the collective effort to help war-affected people stay safe, warm and protected in dignified accommodation during the harsh winter months. UNHCR’s target was to reach almost 1 million people with winterized items like thermal blankets, sleeping bags, thermos flasks and solid fuel heaters; cash assistance to cover additional costs related to heating during the winter; and with collective centre expansions and improvements and housing repairs and insulation, to enable people to remain in their own homes. As of 7 February 2023, 1,565,204 people had received support through UNHCR’s winterization program. In addition, UNHCR has distributed 106 generators to heating ‘Invincibility Points’ and collective centres, to enable people to find warmth and connect with their loved ones.