Weekly Update #152
January 27, 2025

Source: UNHCR collation of statistics made available by the authorities

Learning During Winter: Risk and Response

Ukraine experiences severe winter. It affects many sectors including education. With the continuous massive infrastructural destruction, the war caused damaged to school, learning facilities, homes, and other critical infrastructure, including energy and heating systems, the most vulnerable people of Ukraine are at particular risk during winter. Many villages and towns close to the front line are cut off from heating, gas or water, leaving thousands of people at risk. Schooling and learning are impacted.

The Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) facilitated Winter Response Plan prioritizes a few sectors. Complementing, the Education Cluster has come up with this guideline to facilitate learning during winter, especially the children affected by ongoing war.

An estimated 34 (1,245,669 out of 3,655,607) percentage of students from grades 1-12 are exposed to war-induced winter vulnerability in frontline and surrounded oblasts during the academic year of 2024-2025.

Ongoing educational activities can be utilized to mitigate the negative impact on learning and wellbeing of children. This note would be useful with specific actions related to winter to support the partners in a structural way of the collective response, regardless of source of funding emergency, recovery, or development.

War, winter, and their twin impact on children continue. The education system improves its resilience and agility. As Ukraine approaches its third winter since the escalation of the war in February 2022, increased attacks on energy infrastructure since the end of 2023 and throughout the first half of 2024 and sustained hostilities impacting schools in front line cities, towns and villages continue to inflict severe suffering on millions of people and affecting learning of their children.

Significant learning risks have included the following:

Lack of heating in school and learning facilities:  With the cold season, which in Ukraine typically starts in October and lasts until March-April, during which schools have open for new academic year. This leads to limited structural learning taking place and reduced time for education related outdoor activities.

Learning interruption and learning loss:  Over 3,400 education institutions, including 2,000 schools, were damaged in Ukraine since the escalation of war in February 2022. According to the Multi Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA), 27 per centage of households with school-aged children reported education disruption because of intensified missile attacks5.

Connectivity for learning is challenged: A total of 558,322 basic school students relies on online from frontline areas. The significant damage to energy infrastructure caused by air strikes in 2024 is likely to result in severe electricity shortages throughout the winter (heating season, which lasts from November till end of March in Ukraine). The learning losses will accumulate as for those children studying fully online the ability to connect to classes will significantly reduce especially in the frontline areas.

Sources: Education Cluster, UNICEF

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Bringing comfort to weary Ukrainians

As the Russian military’s invasion of Ukraine drags on into another year in February, Ukrainians are increasingly tired, hungry and traumatized, says Roman, the executive director of the Association of Mennonite Brethren Churches of Ukraine (AMBCU). (Only first names of Ukrainians are used in this article for security reasons.)

The denomination continues to provide canned meat, food parcels, hygiene supplies or trauma healing activities to thousands of Ukrainians. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) supports their efforts with supplies and funding as the church works between the front lines and the western region.

“The aim of our church now is to help the suffering,” says Roman. Most of the people AMBCU serves are elderly people. Some couldn’t leave or didn’t leave their hometowns regardless of the violence and others have relocated.

Because of the war, prices and taxes are rising in relation to salaries, he says. Government pensions given to older people are about $50 to $60 per month, which is not enough for their basic needs.

“Sometimes these small food parcels for persons (are) all they have to get through for several days. Sometimes they don’t have anything to eat,” Roman says.

Emotional burdens are heavy too. “Almost in every household, there is someone who has been drafted. Every person knows someone or several people who were killed in the war,” he says.

In addition to AMBCU, MCC works with 11 other faith-based or community-based organizations. These partners are providing health care, food, hygiene supplies, psychological support, education or care for Ukrainians who are disabled or elderly.

Many Ukrainians need psychological support because of the war’s trauma, says David Driver, an MCC representative, who, along with his wife, Liz Driver, works from Poland. MCC staff and partners who are working in Ukraine also need emotional support as they continue to serve in very difficult circumstances.

At New Hope Center, psychologists and other staff provide emotional and psychological support near the front lines in Zaporizhzhia. They offer group and individual therapy for parents and children. Group therapy can include working with art and clay and learning stress reduction activities.

The staff also is aware of how the war affects them and the secondary trauma they experience from their work. MCC supports two retreats for New Hope staff each year in a safe area so the staff can pray as a team, breathe fresh air, walk in the forest and undergo programs for their own emotional and physical health. MCC has funded retreats for other partners too, giving them a reprieve from the sounds of war.

For some families, the war has compounded problems they were dealing with before the war. In the southcentral city of Nikopol, Yulia takes care of her 17-year-old son, Rostyslav, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Her husband left her when Rostyslav and his sibling were young, which led her into times of deep depression.

While the Russian military was shelling Nikopol, Rostyslav’s epilepsy attacks worsened to the point where an ambulance sometimes needed to be called three or four times a day. The company where Yulia worked closed because of the war. Her new job at a water bottling plant, which is located in the most shelled area of the city, is very hard work.

In addition, because of bureaucratic reasons, the electricity supplier imposed a Line on the house where the family lives. Therefore, all accounts, including Rostyslav’s bank account for his disability pension, were frozen to pay the Line.

Yulia turned to a church where she learned about New Life Charitable Fund, a faith-based partner that surrounded her with support as part of their distribution of MCC-supported supplies for about 20,000 people. They gave her food, diapers, hygiene products and comforters as well as legal and spiritual support. The comprehensive support gave her hope that her family will be able to survive the crisis, New Life staff report.

Many Ukrainians are seeking spiritual help as the war drags on, says Roman. As AMBCU’s congregations were scattered or buildings destroyed because of the war, members started new churches. As of December 2024, he estimates about 70% of people attending the church’s 27 congregations, including church plants and those meeting at shelters, are newcomers.

“During problems and persecution, people turn to God. I can see that people have become more sincere and open. They have become enabled more to serve others,” he says. “In our churches, we serve other people who have suffered through the war. We are in need ourselves, but we are trying to serve others. I think this is the meaning of Christian life in such difLicult times.”

The canned meat, food, comforters and hygiene supplies from MCC helps the church serve in very practical ways, Roman says. Though AMBCU does not combine sharing the gospel with distributions, people are drawn to the church as they see the kindness of the staff and volunteers.

AMBCU has about 200 volunteers throughout the country who help distribute supplies, says Andriy, who is the humanitarian coordinator for AMBCU. Keeping volunteers is getting harder, he says, because so many young men are being drafted and because people are leaving the country.

“Sometimes benefactors receive this aid with tears in their eyes. We see how dire the need is,” Andriy says. “We realize we can’t provide people with everything they need, but people are still grateful.”

Source: MCC

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WFP Ukraine External Situation Report – December 2024

Situation Update

• The war continues in Ukraine, with heavy clashes on the ground and massive country-wide aerial strikes. The overall pace of frontline developments in the eastern regions slowed down in December compared to November due to the harsh weather conditions. Still, nearly 170 frontline locations remain inaccessible hampering WFP to deliver vital humanitarian aid to around 24,000 beneficiaries.

• In December, Ukraine endured the 13th large-scale combined drone and missile attack of the year targeting energy infrastructure, with strikes on power plants and gas storage facilities. Given the extensive damage already sustained and the winter conditions, there remains a significant risk of prolonged power cuts.

WFP Response

WFP assisted an estimated 1.5 million people in December through various activities.

Food Assistance

WFP reached almost 809,000 Ukrainians through a combination of bread, rapid response rations, 30-day rations, and institutional feeding to meet the specific needs of various populations. Most of WFP's in-kind support goes to frontline communities.

WFP reached 7,600 beneficiaries with double distributions in the Donetsk region and provided around 3,500 ready-to-eat (RTEs) food rations to evacuees from Donetsk and Kharkiv in centralized transit centres.

Cash Assistance

WFP disbursed over USD 16.6 million to more than 720,000 people through various cash-based assistance modalities.

In December, an additional 23,000 people from four communities in the Mykolaiv and Donetsk regions started receiving sectoral cash assistance. Nearly 254,000 beneficiaries received UAH 1,500 (equivalent to USD 36) per person, per month through sectoral cash.

WFP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Policy, provides complementary cash assistance to nearly 50,000 people who are ineligible for pensions and persons with disabilities from an early age, including children with disabilities.

Social Protection

WFP signed a new tripartite agreement with the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine and the State Enterprise “Information and Computing Center of the Ministry of Social Policy”, under which WFP will provide USD 400,000 to further support the modernization of the Unified Information System of the Social Sphere (UISSS). Since

School Feeding

WFP signed an agreement with the Kharkiv City Administration to implement the School Meal Programme for 49 underground schools in Kharkiv for the 2024-2025 academic year. As part of the emergency support, WFP will transfer 50 percent of the cost of meals for over 4,500 primary school students (grades 1-4) in the city.

Grain from Ukraine

WFP received new contributions (USD 5.2 million) to support Syria with 3,900 mt of wheat flour under the Grain from Ukraine initiative. As a result, the first batch of 500 mt of Ukrainian wheat flour was delivered on 31 December by trucks to the WFP warehouse in Sarmada, Syria, with the remaining 3,400 mt planned for delivery in 2025.

Source: WFP

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IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine

According to a report released last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team based at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) has heard frequent explosions from outside the site over the past week, further underlining persistent dangers to nuclear safety and security during the military conflict, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said today.

The team reported hearing multiple instances of such military activity in recent days, at varying distances from the ZNPP. There was no damage reported to the plant itself. Although the sound of nearby military action has been a common occurrence ever since the IAEA established a continued presence at the ZNPP in September 2022, it has happened virtually daily in recent weeks.

As part of the ongoing work to monitor developments relevant for nuclear safety and security, the IAEA team has continued to conduct walkdowns across the site – including but not limited to the main and emergency control rooms of four reactor units and one turbine hall – and observed and discussed various safety-related maintenance activities with the plant.

The IAEA team was also informed that the ZNPP is procuring three new mobile diesel generators, similar to those received late last year. They are in addition to the site’s 20 fixed emergency diesel generators that are designed to provide on-site power if there is a total loss of off-site power.

Separately, the ZNPP said that four diesel steam generators were put into operation for ten days to provide the steam needed to process liquid radioactive waste. These generators were commissioned a year ago.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, air raid alarms were heard on several occasions at Ukraine’s three operating nuclear power plants (NPPs) – Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine – as well as at the Chornobyl site. At the Khmelnytskyy NPP, the IAEA team members have taken shelter at their residence three times in recent days due to such alerts.

At the Khmelnytskyy and South Ukraine NPPs and the Chornobyl site, the IAEA teams were informed of instances of drones being detected at distances ranging from 2 to 30 km from the sites.

Despite such military activities, Ukraine’s nine operating nuclear power reactors have been operating at full capacity this week, safely generating much-needed electricity during the cold winter months.

Separately, the Agency continued with deliveries under its comprehensive programme of nuclear safety and security assistance to Ukraine. Last week, the Chornobyl site received equipment to enhance its nuclear security system. The delivery, the 104th organised by the IAEA since the start of the armed conflict, was supported with funds from the United Kingdom.

Source: IAEA

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WHO Health Emergency Appeal 2025

Insecurity, damage to and lack of maintenance of aging health facilities and medical equipment, shortages of medicines and medical supplies, understaffing, and curtailed access to referral hospitals and pharmacies have all taken a toll on the provision and accessibility of health care services. The war's impact on public health is of grave concern, particularly as public funding is redirected towards military expenses.

Despite the resilience of Ukraine's health system and generally high access to certain health services, obtaining care near the contact line remains challenging, particularly in rural areas. In conflict-affected regions (“oblasts”), WHO has noted partial or complete disruptions in primary care services and a significant increase in trauma and emergency medical needs.

Both prehospital and hospital sectors across the country are overwhelmed with acute trauma and burn patients.

Additionally, barriers such as cost, time, and transportation constraints further delay or prevent access to medical care.

Health system recovery remains one of WHO's key priorities in Ukraine, which goes beyond rebuilding damaged or destroyed medical facilities. WHO aims to support the country in restoring essential services, and the financing of these essential services, such as rehabilitation, primary health care (PHC), public health surveillance, all of which are critical for overall national recovery.

The war has intensified mental health challenges, with approximately 9.6 million people estimated to be at risk of or living with a mental health condition. WHO is responding to the mental health crisis, including through its support to the All-Ukrainian Mental Health Program, initiated by First Lady Olena Zelenska.

Access to rehabilitation care is hampered by non-operational or functional rehabilitation referral pathways, gaps in the provision of assistive products to the person upon discharge from the hospital, and major gaps in specialized rehabilitation services. Barriers for persons with disabilities accessing humanitarian services are present, putting them at a heightened risk. The Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine reports that 6% of the population are persons with disabilities. However, given the multiple barriers related to the disability status process in Ukraine, including technical and administrative challenges, this is a significant underestimate. WHO estimates that the prevalence in Ukraine is equal to or more than the WHO global average, standing at 16%. Increased injury rates, breakdown of health and other critical services and displacement contribute to increased disabilities in Ukraine. Disability is a critical driver of humanitarian needs and requires to be actively considered across humanitarian programmes and processes.

WHO’S STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

1. Emergency health response in Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict: For more effective public health responses to emerging threats for war-affected communities in priority regions (along the contact line) and high IDP concentration areas across the country.

2. Health system recovery: Including restoring essential services such as rehabilitation, primary care, and public health surveillance, which are critical for overall national recovery and goes beyond just rebuilding health facilities.

3. Continuing health reforms: Initiated in 2016 to align Ukraine’s health care system with international best practices. Despite the war, WHO supports reforms in health financing, primary care, procurement transparency, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

KEY ACTIVITIES FOR 2025

The major activities for 2025 cover 8 important health areas.  Among these are:

Strengthen emergency and trauma care

• Enhance mass casualty management and poly-trauma care through health workforce capacity-building at pre-hospital and hospital levels.

• Institutionalize trauma care protocols and internationally accredited training to reduce dependency on external expertise.

• Equip and support National Emergency Medical Teams (n-EMTs) and disaster medicine.

• Expand support for survivors of gender-based violence through targeted services.

Expand access to essential services

• Ensure continuity of primary health care (PHC) by deploying modular prefabricated structures and improving services in priority regions.

• Deliver essential medical supplies, including medicines, equipment, and consumables to conflict-affected areas.

• Address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by integrating prevention and care into PHC delivery, with a focus on vulnerable populations.

Enhance outreach for hard-to-reach populations

• Deploy mobile health units and outreach teams to underserved areas near conflict zones.

• Innovate with telemedicine and eHealth to address human resource shortages and improve access to are.

• Strengthen referral pathways to ensure access to specialized services.

Support and promote rehabilitation, disability inclusion, mental health and psychosocial services (MHPSS)

• Expand MHPSS integration at the PHC level to address stress-related impacts on health. 

• Provide targeted services to address negative coping mechanisms exacerbating NCD risks, such as tobacco and alcohol use.

• Improve access to care for persons with disabilities, including assistive technologies and facility upgrades for inclusivity.

Enhance health security and preparedness

• • Develop preparedness plans aligned with International Health Regulations (IHR) to strengthen outbreak prevention and response.

  • Address winter and energetic security by maintaining electricity, heating and cold chain for sensitive medical supplies.

  • Monitor and mitigate environmental health risks, including WASH-related hazards, air pollution and radiological exposures.

Source: WHO

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From War to a Fresh Start: How one-time grants help people rebuild lives and businesses

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, UNHCR and partners have supported 56 internally displaced people with one-time grants.

These grants enabled them to not only set up their own businesses or undergo vocational training but also create employment for other people who were forced to flee their homes.

For many, the name Mariupol evokes haunting images of destruction and admiration for the resilience of its people. For Tetiana, it is the home she was forced to leave when the full-scale Russian invasion turned her life upside down. Now, nearly three years later and a thousand kilometers away, Tetiana is bringing a piece of Mariupol’s heart to western Ukraine.

After the start of the full-scale war, Tetiana fled Mariupol with her young daughter, first to Dnipro and eventually to Ivano-Frankivsk. She left behind her older parents, her career as the head of a bank branch, and the comforting familiarity of her life in the once vibrant city by the Azov Sea. But Tetiana carried something with her—the spirit of the city which now lives on in “Dusha” (The Soul), a cozy café she opened in Ivano-Frankivsk with grant support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The café’s walls are adorned with symbols of Mariupol, and its motto, “A part of the soul in every coffee cup,” invites guests to experience the warmth and hospitality of her hometown.

The café quickly became a success, and Tetiana’s vision grew. She opened a second location and hired two employees, including another displaced woman from the Odesa region. Driven to improve her craft, Tetiana is currently taking a culinary course in France, ensuring that her cafés continue to thrive. She credits her business not only with providing financial stability, but also with helping her to find her place in her new community.

From displacement to entrepreneurship

In 2022-2023, UNHCR provided 34 business grants and 22 vocational training grants to support internally displaced people in Ukraine to rebuild their lives, achieve financial stability and become self-reliant. The programme was implemented in four western regions of Ukraine, including Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne. Of the 56 people who received this assistance, as of end 2024, 38 of them have businesses that remain operational, a survey indicates. Moreover, these ventures have helped to create employment for an additional 28 people, many of whom were also displaced.

One of them is the beauty studio “Petite Rêve” (Little dream) that was opened by Olha who fled to Ivano-Frankivsk from the occupied city of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia region. She currently employs seven women, including some who were internally displaced like herself. With the grant from UNHCR, Olha expanded her entrepreneurial initiative from a modest manicure service to a full-scale beauty studio offering hairdressing, brow artistry, and more. She also gives back to her community by training local and displaced women in manicure techniques, free of charge.

Helping people return and remain

For another business grant recipient, Olena, the journey to her own thriving business took her from fleeing Zaporizhzhia, staying six months in Italy as a refugee, returning to Ukraine and moving to Ivano-Frankivsk. Having faced so many challenges, she decided to finally go after her dream – to set up a sports club called “Pride”. UNHCR’s grant enabled Olena to expand her business and now the club offers classes in Muay Thai boxing, gymnastics, karate, pilates, and stretching for children and adults.

Source: United Nations

Ukraine and Russia continue attacks

Attacks on Ukrainian territories accelerated last week.

• Russia claimed on Wednesday it had taken control of the village of Zapadne in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region. Russia has managed to establish a bridgehead on the western bank this year and Zapadne is located about 4km (2.5 miles) west of the Oskil River, marking a significant gain. The Kharkiv region is under constant shelling and two men were killed one day earlier in the village of Goptivka, according to the Ukrainian governor, Oleg Synegubov. The Ukrainian air force said on Wednesday that air defences had shot down 65 Russian drones in 10 regions, including Kharkiv.

• The claimed Russian advance came as its troops close in on Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, acknowledged on Tuesday that “in the east, we have a difficult situation”. The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said the Russians continued to concentrate their main efforts on Pokrovsk.

• Russian aerial attacks near Kyiv killed three people and wounded several others, Ukrainian officials said on Friday. “Three people were killed in an enemy attack in the Kyiv region,” the emergency services said in a statement on social media. Fragments of a drone had struck a 10-storey residential building after the head of the region said a private home had also been hit, it added.

Ukraine retaliated with attacks on Russian territories.

• Ukraine fired a wave of drones into Russia sparking a blaze at an oil depot and explosions at a plant producing military aircraft, the Ukrainian army said on Tuesday. In the western Voronezh region bordering Ukraine, Kyiv said it struck an oil depot near the town of Liski for the second time in less than a week. “Tanks with fuel and lubricants used by the occupiers to supply Russian troops caught fire,” the Ukrainian army said. Ukraine also said it struck an aviation plant producing “combat aircraft” in the western Russian city of Smolensk, sparking “explosions”. The governor of the Smolensk region said only that falling debris from downed drones had sparked “roof fires”. Footage and pictures online backed up the Ukrainian versions of events. Russia said it downed 55 Ukrainian drones over Monday night, more than half of which were intercepted over regions bordering Ukraine, while Ukraine said Moscow fired 131 drones and decoys as well as four missiles at its territory.

• An overnight Ukrainian attack involving more than 121 drones had targeted 13 Russian regions, Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday, but they were repelled. Ukraine’s military said the attack hit a Russian oil refinery and a microchip factory in the Bryansk region with a video posted online showing a giant plume of smoke and flames engulfing an oil refinery in the Ryazan region.

North Korea is preparing to send more soldiers to fight in Ukraine,  military officials in South Korea have said, despite reports of heavy casualties among troops from the communist state. South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement on Friday that four months after the North sent an estimated 11,000 troops to the Ukraine conflict – a significant number of whom have been killed or wounded – the regime “is suspected of accelerating follow-up measures and preparation for an additional dispatch of troops”.

Source: The Guardian

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Russia suffered 434,000 casualties in 2024, claimed the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Ukrainian army official said casualties were more than the previous two years combined. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in an interview broadcast on Sunday evening that the figure included 150,000 deaths. Syrskyi did not give a figure for Ukrainian casualties. Ukraine’s General Staff also reported over the weekend that almost 819,000 Russian soldiers had been killed, captured or wounded since the start of the war. In December 2024, Kyiv said 2,200 Russian soldiers died in the space of 24 hours, its worst toll since the start of the war. Western tallies for Russian casualties are lower, with an assessment in October last year stating up to 115,000 had been killed and 500,000 wounded since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Source: The Guardian

Why meeting Trump’s military spending target could be tough for NATO’s lowest spender

While Europe’s military heavyweights have already said that meeting  President Donald Trump’s potential challenge to spend up to 5% of their economic output on security won’t be easy, it would be an especially tall order for Spain.

The eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, Spain ranked last in the 32-nation military alliance last year for the share of its GDP that it contributed to the military, estimated to be 1.28%. That’s after NATO members pledged in 2014 to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense — a target that 23 countries were belatedly expected to meet last year amid concerns about the war in Ukraine.

When pressed, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and others in his government have emphasized Spain’s commitment to European security and to NATO. Since 2018, Spain has increased its defense spending by about 50% from 8.5 billion euros ($8.9 billion) to 12.8 billion euros ($13.3 billion) in 2023. Following years of underinvestment, the Sánchez government says the spending increase is proof of the commitment Spain made to hit NATO’s 2% target by 2029.

But for Spain to spend even more — and faster — would be tough, defense analysts and former officials say, largely because of the unpopular politics of militarism in the Southern European nation. The country’s history of dictatorship and its distance from Europe’s eastern flank also play a role.

“The truth is defense spending is not popular in European countries, whether it’s Spain or another European country,” said Nicolás Pascual de la Parte, a former Spanish ambassador to NATO who is currently a member of European Parliament from Spain’s conservative Popular Party. “We grew accustomed after the Second World War to delegate our ultimate defense to the United States of America through its military umbrella, and specifically its nuclear umbrella.”

“It’s true that we need to spend more,” Pascual de la Parte said of Spain.

The politics of military spending

Spain joined NATO in 1982, a year after the young, isolated democracy survived a coup attempt by its armed forces and seven years after the end of the 40-year military dictatorship led by Gen. Francisco Franco. Under a 1986 referendum, a narrow majority of Spaniards voted to stay in the alliance, but it wasn’t until 1999 that the country that is now Europe’s fourth-largest by population joined NATO’s military structure.

In that sense, “we are a very young member of NATO,” said Carlota Encina, a defense and security analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute think tank in Madrid.

Opinion polls generally show military engagement as unpopular among Spanish voters. An overwhelming majority of Spaniards were opposed to their country’s involvement in the 2003 Iraq war, polls showed at the time, but support for NATO in recent years has grown.

About 70% of Spaniards were in favor of NATO sending military equipment, weapons and ammunition to Ukraine soon after Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country, according to a March 2022 poll conducted by the state-owned Centre for Sociological Studies, or CIS. But only about half were in favor of Spain increasing its own defense budget, according to another survey CIS conducted that month.

Across the spectrum, political analysts and former Spanish politicians say militarism just isn’t great politics. Madrid is nearly 3,000 kilometers (roughly 1,800 miles) west of Kiev, unlike the capitals of Poland, Estonia or Latvia, which are closer and have exceeded the alliance’s 2% target based on last year’s estimates.

Ignasi Guardans, a Spanish former member of the European Union’s parliament, said many Spaniards value their army for humanitarian efforts and aid work, like the help thousands of soldiers provided after the destructive Valencia flash floods last year.

“Now the army has returned to have some respect,” Guardans said, “but that’s not NATO.”

Encina said Spanish politicians generally feel much more pressure to spend publicly on other issues. “This is something that politicians here always feel and fear,” she said. The thinking goes, “why do we need to invest in defense and not in social issues?”

International missions

Spain’s leaders point out that while they have yet to meet NATO’s budget floor, it’s unfair to only consider the country’s NATO contributions as a percentage of GDP to measure of its commitments to Europe and its own security.

Officials often point to the country’s various EU and U.N. missions and deployments, arguing that through them, the country contributes in good form.

“Spain, as a member of NATO, is a serious, trustworthy, responsible and committed ally,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters this week following comments made by Trump to a journalist who asked the U.S. president about NATO’s low spenders. “And at this moment, we have more than 3,800 men and women in peace missions, many of them with NATO,” Robles said.

Spain’s armed forces are deployed in 16 overseas missions, according to the defense ministry, with ground forces taking part in NATO missions in Latvia, Slovakia and Romania and close to 700 soldiers in Lebanon as part of the country’s largest U.N. mission.

Spain also shares the Morón and Rota naval bases in the south of the country with the U.S. Navy, which stations six AEGIS destroyers at the Rota base in Cádi

Slippery metrics

Analysts also point to the fact that Spain’s government routinely spends more on defense than what is budgeted, through extraordinary contributions that can exceed the official budget during some years by 20% to 30%.

“The reality is, the whole thing is not very transparent,” Guardans said.

Pascual de la Parte, who was Spain’s NATO ambassador from 2017 to 2018, said the 2% metric shouldn’t be the only measure since not every NATO member accounts for their defense budgets in the same way.

“There is no agreement between allies in choosing which criteria decide the real spending effort,” he said, adding that, for example, while some countries include things like soldiers’ pensions in their accounting, others don’t. “Ultimately, they can involve very disparate realities.”

Source: AP News

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NATO chief says Russian victory over Ukraine would have a costly impact on alliance’s credibility

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned on Thursday that a Russian victory over Ukraine would undermine the dissuasive force of the world’s biggest military alliance and that its credibility could cost trillions to restore.

NATO has been ramping up its forces along its eastern flank with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, deploying thousands of troops and equipment to deter Moscow from expanding its war into the territory of any of the organization’s 32 member countries.

“If Ukraine loses then to restore the deterrence of the rest of NATO again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we are contemplating at this moment in terms of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production,” Rutte said.

“It will not be billions extra; it will be trillions extra,” he said, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Rutte insisted that Ukraine’s Western backers must “step up and not scale back the support” they are providing to the country, almost three years after Russia’s full-fledged invasion began.

“We have to change the trajectory of the war,” Rutte said, adding that the West “cannot allow in the 21st century that one country invades another country and tries to colonize it.”

Anxiety in Europe is mounting that U.S. President Donald Trump might seek to quickly end the war in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on terms that are unfavorable to Ukraine, but Rutte appeared wary about trying to do things in a hurry.

Trump’s new envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, criticized allies who talk of continuing the war but still won’t increase their defense spending to NATO guidelines. He said Americans think it is “outrageous” that the Biden administration refused to talk to Putin.

NATO leaders have agreed that each member country should spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on their military budgets. The alliance estimates that 23 members will reach that level this year, although almost a third will still fall short. Poland and Estonia spend most in GDP terms.

On Wednesday, Trump threatened to impose stiff taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Moscow if an agreement isn’t reached to end the war, but that warning will probably fall on deaf ears in the Kremlin. Russia’s economy is already weighed down by a multitude of U.S. and European sanctions.

Sikorksi warned that Putin should not be put at the center of the world stage over Ukraine.

“The president of the United States is the leader of the free world. Vladimir Putin is an outcast and an indicted war criminal for stealing Ukrainian children,” Sikorski said.

“I would suggest that Putin has to earn the summit, that if he gets it early, it elevates him beyond his, significance and gives him the wrong idea about the trajectory of this,” he said.

 Source: AP News

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Norway Increases Support for Mine Clearance in Ukraine

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) is a global leader in using mine detection dogs and is clearing large areas in Ukraine of mines and explosives. Norway is increasing its support for this work by NOK 164 million in 2025.

In Romny, Ukraine, NPA and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) have established training facilities for mine detection dogs and their handlers. Since 2022, this training area has professionalized and systematized the efforts to provide dogs and handlers with the best possible conditions to contribute to mine clearance operations. In December, the government announced that support for NPA’s work in Ukraine would be increased by NOK 164 million for 2025.

'Mines do not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Clearing mines and explosives saves lives here and now, but it also spares future generations from injuries and the loss of lives. NPA has extensive experience in mine clearance, and their efforts are an important contribution to ensuring a safe future for the Ukrainian people', said Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has caused immense suffering and created challenges that will take Ukraine many years to address. The widespread presence of mines and explosives across large areas has put significant portions of Ukraine’s agricultural land on hold. This impacts both Ukraine and many parts of the world that depend on Ukrainian agricultural products. It is estimated that around 140,000 square kilometers of the country are considered high-risk areas—an area equivalent to the combined size of the counties of Vestland, Innlandet, and Trøndelag in Norway.

Financed by the Norwegian government’s multiyear support programme for Ukraine – the Nansen Programme, NPA is one of 69 certified international partners assisting in mine clearance efforts in Ukraine. NPA’s work includes the training of 14 mine detection dogs and the development of Ukraine’s own mine clearance capacity.

Source: Government of Norway

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Thai Government Extends Humanitarian Assistance through Thai Red Cross Society to Ukraine

On 15 January 2025, the Royal Thai Government handed over 3 million Baht to Thai Red Cross Society, which will be transferred to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. The funds are designated for the procurement of power generators to aid those affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

Mrs. Eksiri Pintaruchi, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Thailand, formally presented the financial assistance to Mr. Tej Bunnag, Secretary General of Thai Red Cross Society. The ceremony took place at Terd Prakiat Building, Thai Red Cross Society, and was attended by Mr. Viktor Semenov, Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the Embassy of Ukraine in Thailand.

Source: Thai Red Cross