Today marks three years since the start of full-scale war in Ukraine, with women and girls making up the majority of the 10 million displaced people since Russia’s invasion.
Recent figures from Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicate there are nearly 6.8 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide, with 63 per cent of them women and girls. Within Ukraine, an additional 3.6 million people are internally displaced, with women and girls making up almost half of that population.
With global funding drastically cut in the past year, CARE has called on the international community for support to continue its life-saving response delivering essential items such as hygiene kits, heaters and blankets, as well as funding for workforce training to support survivors of gender-based violence.
As CARE Australia launches the Women in War appeal, with funds going towards the aid efforts, CARE Ukraine Advocacy Advisor Daria Chekalova has re-emphasised the need for women to be part of the efforts to end the conflict.
“It is crucial to ensure that the voices of those most affected are heard and that their well-being remains central to any effort towards conflict resolution,” Chekalova said.
“Women make up the majority of the displaced population, and women’s rights and women-led organisations lead the humanitarian response. They must be guaranteed a role in decision-making that concerns the end of the war and plans for the reconstruction and recovery of Ukraine.”
Yuliia Sporysh, head of NGO Girls, an organisation that partners with CARE, agreed, adding, “Any future peace must not only end the fighting, but also ensure the rights, dignity and future of those who were most affected by this war and had to flee their homes.”
In the past few months, CARE’s partner organisation ha sevacuated more than a dozen people daily from the city of Prokrovsk to a transit centre in eastern Ukraine.
Sarah Easter, the emergency communications officer at CARE Austria and CARE Germany reports that most evacuees are aged between 40-60, while many more elderly individuals with limited mobility are often left behind. Most of the transported refugees continue their journey onward to another location, or are reunited with family members. The remaining cohort reside in an old concert hall, where social workers with CARE’s partner organisation work to find a place for them to stay long-term.
In the village of Sviatohirsk in eastern Ukraine, more than a thousand residents have remained in their damaged homes, many of them pensioners or people unable or unwilling to leave.
Sarah Easter sat down with a 61-year old woman named Olga, who has remained in her home with her husband, the pair refusing to leave despite the frontline of the conflict creeping closer to Sviatohirsk over the past few months.
“I will not go anywhere from this house…this is my home,” Olga said. “My parents are buried here. I’ve lived my entire life here. Only those who stayed the last time were able to protect their property. My husband and I have decided that this is where we will stay until our death.”
“We are happy that this year we did not have to go into our external basement to hide from the bombs,” Olga continued, reflecting on the past years of distant explosions.
“We hear the explosions often. We have learnt to differentiate the sounds, as we hear something every day. Sometimes, it’s de-mining, other times, it’s outgoing fire. And then there are incoming ones, but not close enough.”
Mines are now dispersed across the grounds, making family visits into potentially risky journeys. As gunshots echoed in the distance, Olga added, “We don’t pay attention to gunfire anymore — it’s probably someone shooting at birds or empty cans.”
In the last three years, the village has suffered from groundwater contaminated with corpse particles, making it unsafe to drink. The village water system was destroyed early in the conflict, leaving residents without running water since.
Once a week, a water truck from CARE’s partner organisation delivers drinking water to the village.
“We only drink bottled water we receive from the volunteers,” Olga told CARE.
In the northeastern village of Kharkiv, families are struggling to stay warm during the cold winter, where temperatures drop to minus eight degrees.
Central heating inside apartment buildings have also been damaged by direct hits, leaving families grappling with overnight freezing temperatures.
Fortunately, several families are able to stay warm with the aid of CARE’s distribution of electric heaters and blankets. With increasing infrastructure being damaged by bombs, electricity cuts have meant that households only have electricity for a few hours each day.
As well as other essential items such as cookers, torches, and power banks, CARE is also distributing hygiene kits to the residents inside shelters with towels, shampoo, buckets, soap, and laundry detergent.
One resident, 71-year old woman named Lydia, evacuated from Prokrovsk with her 98-year-old mother, who has dementia.
Collecting items from a CARE shelter recently, Lydia said she was glad to receive a bucket, among other essential tools.
“I really needed a bucket… I have collected water in so many plastic bottles until now,” she said. “When there is no electricity, there is no water either, so I collect it for drinking and washing. I need to wash my mother. A bucket will make life so much easier.”
Lydia said that there is “nothing left” in her hometown.
“The shelling was horrible,” she said. “It was loud and vibrated everywhere. We were afraid, and my mother did not understand what was happening. She always said to me, that someone was knocking on the door, but it was a missile flying.”
“It is safer here. But the prices are so high that I cannot afford to buy anything. We rely on the goodness of other people, like CARE.”
Despite this, Lydia remains frightened for the future. “We are scared that one day there will be no more help. That one day we will be alone. But what should we do instead to survive?”
Meanwhile, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron spoke on over the weekend to emphasis the importance of Ukraine being at the centre of any negotiations to end the war.
Downing Street announced that the pair have agreed to show “united leadership in support of Ukraine” when they meet Donald Trump separately this week.
Image credit: CARE Australia, showing Sviatohirsk resident, Olga.