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STORY: UN / UKRAINE HUMANITARIAN PRESSER
TRT: 05:00
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 04 DECEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations headquarters
04 DECEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“You know, there have been moments of cautious optimism. At the moment, I don't sense any optimism that we're getting closer to ending this, this terrible tragedy.”
4. Wide shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“I mentioned energy destruction; as winter has started, we are particularly worried about the winter. And the big worry is people potentially getting stuck in high rise buildings in cities. I think we're doing quite well in terms of what we call winterization support as a humanitarian community including the UN, reaching vulnerable people in rural areas. We are worried about the nightmare scenario of continued energy destruction and the recovery and unfolding pace with that destruction and in the middle of a harsh winter, people getting stuck in cities, in high rise buildings.”
6. Wide shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“We've had an example of this a few weeks ago in Sumy Oblast, Sumy region, where a city of 40,000 people was cut off for several days, and this was getting critical. The authorities were starting to think through evacuations of those people. Fortunately, that was avoided. But the nightmare scenario, as we are in middle of winter now, is, as it were, a catastrophe within a catastrophe.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“I’ve been in Ukraine a year and a half now, what has fascinating to me, if it’s an appropriate expression, is that while there's this horror of war, while the focus and a lot of my time goes into humanitarian coordination, development and recovery work goes on.”
10. Wide shot, press briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“Kherson itself: the governor told me, every day there's been shelling this year, not a single day into 2025 without shelling. Above ground, it felt like a desolated place, empty of people, not much life compared also to previous times. Then they took me to an underground maternity ward, rebuilt or built with European funding and WHO colleagues involved. And you couldn't experience a starker contrast: above ground the horror of war, below ground in the same place people helping women give birth to new life. And it sort of characterizes the defiance of the Ukrainians.”
12. Wide shot, press briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“Interesting, innovative work of combining humanitarian de-mining with agricultural recovery: so again, in the middle of war, NGOs, government, UN support are de-mining agricultural fields, and then the UN, FAO and others, WFP, are helping farmers back onto their land. So, there is this hope that is being kept alive of a better future.”
14. Wide shot, press briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“Having said that, I think it's also important that we don't romanticize resilience. We speak a lot about Ukraine as an example of resilience, and it certainly is, and I hope the two or three examples I've given illustrate that. But of course, in year four, the population is getting weary and more tired, and we will have to see how that plays out. There remain red lines in terms of the future, such as giving up territory or elections in wartime. But people are getting tired, and that will influence whatever the receptiveness to whatever deal might come out in the future.”
16. Wide shot, press briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthias Schmale, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Ukraine:
“Final point. It's also increasingly a technological war. You know, when you go to the front line, there is, of course, a traditional ground war, if I may call it that: shelling and so on. But the drone war is - the technological developments are incredible. I'm not a military expert, but it leads to different things. Like the last time I went to Donetsk Oblast ten days ago. So, we drove through kilometers of the road being covered by fishnets, basically, because that apparently avoids drones with cameras being as effective as they could be. But the people I spoke to on the ground, so humanitarian, we work with almost 400, more than 400 NGOs implementing the actual services on the ground, many of them Ukrainian and really, that's what they talk about. Their biggest worry, the biggest threat to their work is drone attacks targeting them very directly.”
18. Wide shot, end of press briefing
Matthias Schmale, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine said, “At the moment, I don't sense any optimism that we're getting closer to ending this terrible tragedy.” Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters today (4 Dec), he cautioned that earlier “moments of cautious optimism” had faded as Ukraine enters another winter under bombardment.
Schmale warned that continued strikes on energy infrastructure pose one of the gravest risks. “We are particularly worried about the winter,” he said, noting that the “big worry is people potentially getting stuck in high rise buildings in cities.”
He pointed to a recent close call in the northeast, saying a city of 40,000 people in Sumy region “was cut off for several days.” Authorities had begun considering evacuations, he said, adding that the worst was fortunately avoided. But he warned that the winter months could bring “a catastrophe within a catastrophe.”
Despite ongoing strikes, Schmale said Ukraine is living through a dual reality in which “development and recovery work goes on” even as fighting continues. In Kherson, he noted that “every day there's been shelling this year,” leaving the streets desolate and largely empty. Yet beneath that devastation, he visited an underground maternity ward, a setting he described as a stark counterpoint to the destruction above. Schmale said, “And you couldn't experience a starker contrast: above ground the horror of war, below ground in the same place people helping women give birth to new life. And it sort of characterizes the defiance of the Ukrainians.”
He also highlighted “innovative work” combining de-mining with agricultural recovery, with NGOs and UN agencies clearing fields and helping farmers return to their land. He said such efforts keep alive the hope of a better future.
Still, he cautioned against “romanticiz[ing] resilience.” After nearly four years of war, he said “the population is getting weary and more tired,” even as red lines remain firmly in place. That fatigue, he added, will shape “the receptiveness to whatever deal might come out in the future.”
Schmale said the conflict is becoming increasingly technological, with drone warfare reshaping conditions for civilians and aid workers alike. On a recent trip to Donetsk region, he observed “kilometers of the road being covered by fishnets” to disrupt drone surveillance. Humanitarian groups, he said, report that their biggest worry is “drone attacks targeting them very directly.”
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