Ukraine: 2024-2025 winter risk assessment
Overview
The 2024–2025 winter season in Ukraine is expected to coincide with ongoing complex and challenging factors, placing a significant burden on the health-care system, and adversely affecting the overall well-being of the population. Due to ongoing attacks on civil infrastructure, front-line movements, mass displacements, and disruptions of access to essential health-care services, the war’s impacts, compounded by winter, can increase the risk of excess cold-related morbidity and mortality. This risk assessment focuses on cold temperatures as a hazard based on historical weather data (this risk assessment is not a forecast predicting weather trends for the 2024–2025 winter season), vulnerable populations at high risk of public health impacts, health service access and delivery, and the practical actions that could be taken to reduce the risk of adverse health-related outcomes due to severe cold. For a broader and more detailed understanding of the public health situation and threats in Ukraine viewed through an all-hazards lens, see the Ukraine public health situation analysis.
