Particularly vulnerable groups include older people and people with disabilities who may be unable to flee from high-risk areas. Women and children, who make up approximately 90 percent of people fleeing the crisis, are at risk of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse. UNHCR is on the ground in Ukraine and across Europe ensuring basic and urgent needs are met. UNHCR and UNICEF have partnered together to establish 39 Blue Dots across eight different countries—one-stop safe spaces equipped to provide information, counseling, mental health and psychosocial support, legal aid and protection services for refugees. 

The war in Ukraine has caused ripple effects across the world—disrupting global supply chains and increasing the price of food, fuel and other commodities. Displaced people living in already vulnerable situations are at risk of gender-based violence and other forms of abuse. The UN Refugee Agency saw a $700 million funding gap in the first year of the war in Ukraine, putting great strain on operations in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Iraq, Ethiopia and other countries in dire need of support. 

“Countries hosting Ukrainian refugees abroad have done incredible work over the last 3 years to provide safety and a sense of normalcy to support these refugees in restarting their lives in their new communities, all the while hoping for conditions to change in Ukraine to allow them to go home. We must continue to sustain this hope,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said returning from a visit to several frontline regions of Ukraine in January 2025.