Humanitarian aid is built on a simple promise: that help will reach those who need it most.
Yet around the world, keeping that promise is becoming increasingly dangerous. As conflicts intensify and humanitarian access shrinks, aid workers are operating in environments where insecurity, attacks and restrictions on access put both lives and humanitarian operations at risk.
In Ukraine, these risks are now part of everyday humanitarian work as Russia is turning deliberate attacks on humanitarian operations into a brutal routine.
Between January and June 2026, OCHA recorded 168 incidents affecting humanitarian access across Ukraine, 7 humanitarian workers were killed and 19 injured, while violence against humanitarian personnel, assets and facilities accounted for the majority of reported incidents.
These attacks:
- disrupted aid deliveries
- damaged humanitarian infrastructure
- made it harder to reach communities most in need
Their consequences challenge one of the fundamental principles of humanitarian action: that help must be able to reach those who need it most.
When warehouses become targets
A humanitarian warehouse is much more than a storage building. When one is destroyed, the consequences ripple far beyond its walls.
In May 2026, a Russian missile strike hit a UNHCR-contracted warehouse in Dnipro, killing 2 warehouse employees and destroying humanitarian supplies worth around USD 1 million that were intended for frontline communities.
Just days later, Russian strike damaged a World Food Programme warehouse in the same city, destroying enough food to feed around 130,000 people.
In July, another attack destroyed the Ukrainian Red Cross Society's (URCS) central humanitarian warehouse near Kyiv, wiping out more than 320,000 relief items, including emergency stocks and equipment delivered through the EU civil protection mechanism.
Less than 3 weeks later, a UNICEF-contracted warehouse in Kyiv region was severely damaged, destroying more than 106,000 humanitarian supplies for children and families, including generators, drinking water, hygiene kits and water storage tanks.
Ukrainian humanitarian organisations are also paying a heavy price, with their staff and facilities regularly coming under Russian attack. On 31 July 2026, a Russian Shahed drone destroyed the warehouse and office of the national NGO Proliska in the frontline city of Pavlohrad, disrupting assistance to communities affected by the war.
And the list goes on, each attack carrying the same consequence: thousands of people waiting longer for life-saving assistance.
Delivering aid under constant threat
Once humanitarian supplies leave the warehouse the danger only increases.
Aid convoys regularly travel to communities near the frontline, where roads remain exposed to shelling and drone attacks.
In January 2026, an FPV drone struck a vehicle delivering humanitarian bread provided by WFP to Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv region, killing 2 local officials accompanying the delivery. 4 months later, 2 clearly marked United Nations humanitarian convoys came under drone attack during aid deliveries in Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions, injuring 1 driver.
The danger extends beyond aid deliveries. In March 2026, a clearly marked evacuation vehicle operated by the Ukrainian humanitarian organisation Proliska was deliberately struck by an FPV drone while evacuating four civilians from Donetsk region.1 woman was killed instantly, while another died later in hospital from her injuries. 2 other evacuees and the Proliska driver were injured to varying degrees. It was the 100th attack on Proliska's teams since the start of the full-scale invasion — and the 1st to claim the lives of people being evacuated.
This war crime once again demonstrates the Russian army's disregard for international humanitarian law.
Despite these risks, humanitarian teams continue evacuating people from the frontline, delivering the basics to communities that depend on them:
Yet these humanitarian workers are increasingly exposed to the dangers of the very war they are responding to.
In September 2025, a Russian missile struck a humanitarian demining site operated by the Danish Refugee Council near Chernihiv, killing 2 deminers and injuring 8 others. Less than a year later, in June 2026, another humanitarian demining team from Norwegian People's Aid came under attack in Kherson region. 2 Ukrainian deminers were killed and 4 colleagues were injured while carrying out life-saving mine clearance work.
Every attack on humanitarian workers delays assistance, disrupts operations and makes it harder to reach the people who need help most.
Standing with those who continue to help
Despite the risks, humanitarian organisations continue working across Ukraine every day.
