Barham Salih, the newly appointed head of the U.N. refugee agency, visited Ukraine’s front-line cities in February and called for a diplomatic solution to the war, warning that military options have reached their limit as humanitarian needs overwhelm international aid capacity.
The visit underscored the scale of Ukraine’s crisis: 3.7 million internally displaced, nearly 6 million refugees abroad, and an annual humanitarian appeal only partially funded even as Trump-era cuts have strained the global aid system.
A Diplomatic Path Forward
Barham Salih, the newly appointed head of the United Nations refugee agency, visited Ukraine in February with a single message: military force cannot resolve the country’s war.
“There is no military solution,” Salih told the Associated Press after visiting Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. “There needs to be peace, a durable and just peace so that people can go back to their lives.”
Salih, who served as president of Iraq before his election as UNHCR high commissioner in December, met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss ongoing peace efforts. “Things are not necessarily easy, definitely not easy, but let’s redouble the effort to make sure that diplomacy has a chance,” he said.
The Funding Crisis
The UNHCR issued a $470 million appeal to support Ukrainians affected by the war. As of late February, only $150 million had been pledged.
“This tells you the gap between what is needed and what is available,” Salih said. “My appeal to the international community is, really, this is not the moment to walk away. These vulnerable populations need support. We should deliver this help to them.”
The humanitarian toll of Russia’s invasion has scattered millions of Ukrainians. The agency reported 3.7 million people displaced within their country and nearly 6 million who have fled abroad to become refugees in Europe and beyond.
By 2026, the U.N. agency predicted, 10.8 million Ukrainians would require humanitarian assistance. The greatest concentration of need clustered along the war’s front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine, as well as in the northern border region where intensified fighting produces fresh waves of displacement.
A Global Strain
Salih has spent only one week in his Geneva office since taking the position, instead traveling through Kenya, Chad, Turkey, and Jordan before reaching Ukraine. The circuit reflects the scale of global displacement: 117 million people displaced worldwide, including at least 42 million refugees. Two-thirds remain trapped in protracted displacement, dependent on humanitarian assistance with little prospect of return home.
Drastic cuts to United States humanitarian funding under President Donald Trump have accelerated the erosion of global humanitarian infrastructure and undermined the ability of aid organizations to respond across multiple crises.
“It’s really very difficult to prioritize given the scale of the problem,” Salih said. “We need to be there to help people, but also I have to say we really need to look at durable solutions too as well.”
During his meeting with Zelenskyy, Salih said the two discussed focusing on Ukraine’s “recovery phase and sustainable solutions and self reliance as we go forward.”