Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year. After a 2025 prowned by intintensified attacks and a harsh winter, the country is now also facing reduced international assistance. At the same timet makes UNHCR's work on the ground more difficult through an increasingly lack of respect for international law, UNHCR's representative in Ukraine, Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, tells Utvecklingsmagasinet.
It is early spring in Stockholm when Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, the refugee organization UNHCR's representative in Ukraine, steps into the meeting room at the UNHCR office in Roslagstull. She smiles, apologizes for being a few minutes late, and hangs up her outerwear. The day has been full of meetings and interviews. But when asked about the pace, she shakes her head. Compared to the work in Ukraine, the days in Stockholm seem almost like a break.
“In 2025, only four days went by without Russian airstrikes. Almost every attack caused new damage – to the infrastructure, but also to people's homes and everyday lives,” she says.
The winter of 2025 was particularly brutal for Ukraine. According to OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Russia has sharply escalated its attacks, both in intensity and geographical spread. Attacks have increasingly targeted civilian targets: homes, hospitals, schools, energy facilities and transport networks. The violence has reached deeper into major cities and areas previously considered relatively safe. At the same time, Ukraine has not been spared cuts in aid.
The US share of humanitarian aid to Ukraine decreased from $640 million in 2024 to $157 million in 2025. This is according to an analysis from ACAPS, an independent non-profit organization that reviews humanitarian crises.
When the US sharply cuts has EU, UK and other multilateral actors difficult to full the financial gap. The EU is the actor that has increased their share of the total financial and humanastrengthen support for Ukraine manure, from around 50 percent in 2022 to nearly 90 percent in 2025, according to a report from Kiel Institute, which maps international support for the country.
It has led to systematic changes in humanitarian work in the country.. Aid is increasingly concentrated on the front lines and the most vulnerable – a development that ACAPS describes as hyperprioritization. It is something that Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth highlights:
– In principle, we have not stopped any programs, but we cannot help as many people as we would like, because we have to adapt the support to the funding available.
In 2026, planUNHCRto direct their interventions for the approximately 2,1 million people who are assessed to be in greatest need of supportThe efforts primarily include protection, housing, legal advice and financial support to help people manage their livelihoods until they can be covered by Ukraine's welfare system.
At the same time, the work is largely characterized by emergency operations, such as evacuations from frontline areas, support for internally displaced persons and assistance to people who have lost their homes in missile and drone attacks.
Elderly and people with disabilities get stuck in frontline areas
En A quarter of Ukraine's population is over 60 years old., according to data from the World Health OrganizationThis means that the war is greatly affecting people with reduced mobility, disabilities and greater care needs. Among the most vulnerable regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, the proportion is one third.
Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth says that many have not left their homes, both because of a strong attachment to the place and because the uncertainty about where they would otherwise go is great. For some, evacuation is practically impossible, for example for those who are bedridden. At the same time, it involves great risks to remain, as the areas are subject to recurring drone attacks.
– There is still a strong international focus on Ukraine. It is crucial that attention is maintained. Because the war is still going on in full force, support has not yet decreased as sharply as in other parts of the world where political and diplomatic interest is lower. But the needs in Ukraine tend to increase, which means that the gap between the resources we have access to and the needs that exist will grow in the future, she explains.
Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth points out that what distinguishes Ukraine from most other contexts she has worked in, besides the fact that it is a full-scale war, is that the country has a fully functioning government. UNHCR's work is therefore largely about complementing, rather than replacing, state efforts.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's economy is under increasing pressure following cuts in US aid. In 2026, the country is estimated to have a deficit of around $45 billion for social and civil spending, according to ACAPSThe American aid is said to have been crucial in financing public services, such as salaries for government employees and social safety nets.
“We hope for peace, of course, but in the short term, in the coming months, we expect the situation to remain relatively unchanged,” explains Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth.
Difficult to reach Russian-occupied areas
UNHCR currently lacks access to the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
“It’s simply impossible to get into those areas. I move close to them – the closest I’ve been is 1,5 kilometres away – but it’s very risky. There are trenches, lots of drones and the two armies are practically facing each other,” explains Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth.
Contact with the occupied areas is instead indirect, including through colleagues who are themselves internally displaced persons. Through them, some contact with people in the areas is maintained, when possible. At the same time, the future prospects are uncertain.
When Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth is asked if she sees a trend in the weakening of international law and humanitarian principles in today's conflicts, she gives a short, resigned laugh. The answer seems obvious. Just days earlier, a clearly marked humanitarian vehicle had been attacked by a drone in eastern Ukraine during an evacuation from the front line. Two people were killed.
– Humanitarian law is supposed to protect civilians and aid workers. If they too become targets, it is not just people who are attacked – it erodes the very rules of what is allowed in war.
She emphasizes that the laws of war do not prohibit all armed conflict, but they do set boundaries. As boundaries blur, the work on the ground also changes.
– If we can no longer rely on the protection that the law is supposed to provide, we are forced to work differently – faster, more limited and with significantly greater risks. Every mission I carry out myself or let my colleagues carry out can be very dangerous. It can be deadly. The laws of war exist for a reason. When borders are no longer respected, it is always civilians who pay the price.
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