Despite escalating fighting and a humanitarian catastrophe, the UN has received only 34% of the planned $2.6 billion for aid to Ukraine in 2025, reveals UN Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya, UkrInform reports. 

“Without immediate funding, even priority programs may be shut down,” she warned during a UN Security Council meeting.

The UN has already launched its 2025–2026 winter response plan, which targets the 1.7 million Ukrainians left in high-risk areas.

Nearly 50% more civilian casualties

Since the last Security Council meeting on 20 June, the humanitarian situation has significantly worsened, Msuya said. In the first half of 2025, the number of civilian casualties increased by nearly 50% compared to last year.

Currently, 13 million Ukrainians need assistance, but due to a funding shortfall, only 3.6 million have received it.

Access to Russian-occupied regions remains extremely limited, Msuya emphasized. This makes it impossible to provide basic aid to millions of civilians.

She stressed that Ukrainians cannot depend on donor fatigue or delay, urging UN member states to act without hesitation.

Earlier, Euromaidan Press reported that Ukrainians suffer from dehydration and violence in Donetsk. The city’s residents under the Russian occupation face catastrophic water shortages, with no supply to homes for up to three days at a time. 

Military expert Roman Svitan said that the Russians destroyed the Khanzhonkivske Reservoir in 2022. The pumps capable of moving millions of tons of water were completely demolished. This water sustained all of Donbas, all the way to Mariupol.

Ukrainians suffer from dehydration and violence. In Donetsk Oblast, residents face catastrophic water shortages, with no supply to homes for up to three days at a time, 24 Channel reports. 

Military expert Roman Svitan explains that water was once pumped from the Khanzhonkivske Reservoir to Donetsk, and from there it was distributed across the region. But Russians destroyed the facility back in 2022. The pumps capable of moving millions of tons of water were completely demolished. This was the water that sustained all of Donbas, all the way to Mariupol. 

Russians also supplied civilians with technical water, primarily used in steel plants. As a result, the region’s main water artery, the Khanzhonkivske Reservoir, has now completely dried up.

As the situation in Donetsk becomes critical, many settlers from Russia are simply returning home. Sadly, Ukrainians who remain in the occupied territories will be forced to continue struggling for survival, Svitan adds.

“Today, genocide is being carried out not only through weapons but also through dehydration. This is a war crime for which Moscow must stand trial at the International Court,” he claims.

These are not the only crimes committed by Russian forces in the region. In one shocking incident in Donetsk, Russian soldier Azat Sufiyanov from Bashkortostan broke into an elderly woman’s home, brutally beat her, and attempted to rape her. The man has a criminal record and had deserted his military unit.

In 2023, Russian forces destroyed the Kakhovka Reservoir, including the dam of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. This act has been recognized as a terrorist attack and the largest environmental crime to date, triggering a man-made disaster of global scale.

The destruction of the dam released more than 18 cubic kilometers of water, causing massive flooding in dozens of settlements, including the city of Kherson, and leading to the deaths of thousands.

Russia moves to erase Ukrainian language from schools in occupied Ukrainian territories, the UK Ministry of Defense reported in its 18 July 2025 intelligence update. A draft order from Russia’s Education Ministry outlines plans to eliminate Ukrainian from school curricula starting September 2025. The Ministry justifies the move by citing an allegedly “changed geopolitical situation.”

Kremlin prepares to ban Ukrainian in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson schools

The draft order will primarily affect children in Russian-occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, where Ukrainian has remained a mandatory subject despite the occupation. Under the new plan, schools will no longer be allowed to teach Ukrainian as part of the core curriculum. The order also reportedly reduces the study of Ukrainian literature to a minimal level, further cutting off cultural education.

Long-term effort to eliminate Ukrainian identity

The UK Ministry of Defense reported:

“This follows reported long-term Russian efforts to reduce and eliminate the Ukrainian language in schools in other illegally occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, whilst Russia’s President Putin has simultaneously repeatedly demanded protections for the Russian language within unoccupied territories of Ukraine.”

Cultural cleansing through education policy

The UK Ministry of Defense reports that the Russian Education Ministry’s plans mark “a further addition” to the Kremlin’s “long-standing Russification policy” in occupied Ukrainian territory — a campaign that seeks to “extirpate Ukrainian culture, identity, and statehood.”

Russia has begun using artificial intelligence-based bots for spreading propaganda on social media, especially on Telegram, according to a joint investigation by OpenMinds and the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab).

Researchers have uncovered over 3,600 bots that posted more than 316,000 AI-generated comments in Telegram channels linked to Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories. Another three million messages were spread in broader Ukrainian and Russian Telegram groups. These bots used human-like language, adapting replies to the context of each conversation to promote pro-Kremlin narratives and undermine Ukraine.

Unlike traditional bots that spam identical messages, these accounts simulate real users. They reply directly to other users, shift tone and content, and tailor messages to appear authentic. On average, a bot posts 84 comments per day, with some exceeding 1,000 daily.

The goal is not just to spread fake news, but to create the illusion of widespread public support for the occupation regime, filling comment sections with praise for Russia and attacks on Ukraine. In an environment of information isolation, this becomes a potent tool of mass manipulation.

AI-generated bots often give themselves away through:

• absurd usernames,
• unnatural or AI-generated profile pictures,
• overly formal or awkward phrasing,
• and highly diverse language: one in three comments is uniquely generated by AI.

Even when bot accounts are deleted, their influence lingers. Locals repeatedly exposed to these comments may perceive Kremlin propaganda as the majority opinion, especially in regions where Ukrainian news is inaccessible.