GENEVA: Civilian life on the frontlines in Ukraine is becoming a battle for survival, with attacks on energy infrastructure threatening to spark a major winter crisis, the United Nations warned Friday.
Matthias Schmale, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, said civilians were increasingly bearing the brunt with the approach of the fourth winter since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Schmale said this year had been deadlier for civilians than 2024, with a 30-percent increase in casualties.
Notably, a third of all recorded civilian deaths and injuries in 2025 were caused by drone attacks.
“This is increasingly a technological war: a drone war,” he told reporters in Geneva.
