UN News Today 25 April 2025 |

Ongoing Russian attacks in Ukraine force frontline areas to empty: UNHCR

Frontline areas in Ukraine have continued to empty amid escalating Russian attacks, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday, as Kyiv and other major cities recover from this week’s deadly missile and drone strikes.

Warning of ongoing displacement and deepening needs across Ukraine, UNHCR’s Karolina Lindholm Billing said that attacks on frontline regions are increasing.

“It’s always civilians that are bearing the highest cost of the war,” she said:

“On 24 April, Kyiv’s residents woke up to another deadly Russian attack and these have really intensified alarmingly since the start of this year. Just in Kyiv, 12 people were killed as a result of these attacks across the city, 84 were injured and more than 1,000 people have been directly affected as their homes have been damaged or completely destroyed. But civilians and infrastructure were also hit in several other regions yesterday, including in Kharkiv, where I myself woke up around 2am in the morning to the loud sound of explosions.”

Since January, more than 3,500 people uprooted by the war have transited through Pavlohrad city in central Ukraine; and in total, more than 200,000 have left frontline areas between August last year and the start of 2025.

‘In tears when they saw us’: WFP scales up Sudan aid

To Sudan, where the World Food Programme (WFP) has reached people in newly liberated Khartoum who’ve been largely cut off from aid until now. It’s a major aid breakthrough, the UN agency said on Friday.

Sudan is the only country in the world where famine has been declared and the situation is desperate, said WFP’s Samantha Chattaraj:

“What we saw was very emotional about for us to be there and to engage with women and children who broke down, were literally in tears because, they are seeing for the first time us, the UN staff – World Food Programme staff, talking with them…We are hoping that through this newly established access we will be able to bring that in.”

In March, WFP reached four million people across Sudan – the highest monthly number since the conflict began in April 2023 – and nearly four times the number of people reached one year ago.

This includes 1.6 million people in areas that are classified as either experiencing famine or at risk of famine, in 27 localities.

Across Sudan, nearly 25 million people still face acute hunger, which is half the population.

Destitution and disease stalk Myanmar’s quake survivors

To Myanmar, where one month since the deadly earthquake disaster, tens of thousands of survivors still live in makeshift tents, exposed to storms and disease.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) is on the ground where Dr. Thushara Fernando issued an alert about the growing risks of waterborne disease as the monsoon season approaches:

“They feed their babies. They eat, they drink in their tents. They don’t have even a simple mosquito net to sleep under in the night…When it rains, they can’t sleep, and when the rain stops, they still can’t sleep because they feared the wind might have their only shelter away.”

The WHO medic said that dengue and malaria are now a reality for survivors; water sources are contaminated, temporary toilet facilities are overwhelmed and acute watery diarrhoea has been reported in two areas.

To help, the UN health agency has delivered about 170 tons of emergency medical supplies. This is sufficient for about 450,000 people for three months.

WHO is also coordinating more than 220 emergency medical teams in earthquake-affected areas.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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