As winter deepens and funding shrinks, women-led organisations are sustaining the humanitarian response while defending equality in Ukraine’s Civil Code reform.

Iryna Koval is a Ukrainian humanitarian worker, Head of Programs at ActionAid Eastern Europe.

Today marks four years of war in Ukraine, and Russia continues to destroy lives, tear families apart and cause widespread destruction to homes and essential services, all the while a political outcome remains unclear…

SINCE THE START of the war on 24 February 2022, at least 12.7 million people have been displaced from their homes in Ukraine.

As of February 2026, nearly 6.9 million Ukrainian refugees had been recorded globally, according to United Nations refugee agency.

Additionally, an estimated 3.7 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

During this harsh winter, in which in some regions, temperatures have dropped to nearly -28°C, Russia has sharply intensified its campaign of strikes against civilian populations and key infrastructures in Ukraine.

It deliberately targets power plants, electrical grids, heating facilities, transport networks and residential areas with missiles and drones to deprive civilians of heat, light, water and other essential services amid subzero temperatures. Winter has become a weapon to increase suffering.

Iryna Koval ANASTASIA_VLASOVA ANASTASIA_VLASOVA

We often speak of resilience. But resilience does not keep a home warm, nor does it replace non-functioning public systems.

It’s amazing how much our people can endure. Just when it feels as though nothing could surprise us anymore, new challenges emerge – each one demanding strength we did not know we still had. If before we were learning to live with nightly shelling, now we are also facing extreme cold and four or five days in a row without heating, water, gas, or electricity.

And yet, we wake up in the morning. We go to work. We check on our neighbours. We continue supporting those most at risk — because caring for one another has become our way of surviving.

Our resilient communities

This everyday resilience is not accidental. It is organised, coordinated and sustained. What is keeping communities afloat is the relentless work of civil society — and at its core are women. With thousands of men mobilised on the front line, women have stepped into multiple roles simultaneously.

They are coordinating evacuations, distributing emergency cash and winter kits, providing psychosocial and legal support, and running shelters for survivors of violence.

Women volunteers and women-led organisations are sustaining the humanitarian response in cities like Dnipro and across frontline regions, often with limited resources and under constant pressure.

Their work does not stop at service delivery. At the very moment they are making daily trade-offs to stretch shrinking humanitarian budgets, women-led organisations are also engaged in one of the most consequential legal debates in Ukraine in decades: the reform of the Civil Code. The new draft legislation will absorb and replace the Family Code, reshaping the foundations of private law in the country.

This reform is not technical. It is political. It determines whose rights are protected and whose are negotiable.

Women’s rights and LGBTI organisations are pushing back against provisions that could undermine equality and human rights protections. These include the possibility of maintaining marriage at the age of 14, continued barriers to equal marriage, and the exclusion of same-sex couples from any legal recognition by limiting “de facto family unions” to opposite-sex partners.

Keeping Ukraine working

In the middle of war, civil society organisations are mobilising legal expertise, advocacy networks, and public campaigns to prevent regressive legal changes that could roll back existing protections, contradict Ukraine’s European integration commitments, and entrench discrimination long after the conflict ends.

They are doing this while managing shelters. While responding to air raid sirens. While supporting traumatised families. While compensating for a state overstretched by war and for an international system whose funding is steadily declining.

Yet despite being at the forefront of both humanitarian response and democratic accountability, women-led organisations remain structurally underfunded. According to UN Women, in 2025, around 90% of women’s rights organisations in crisis settings reported significant impacts from funding cuts, and roughly half were at risk of closure within six months without new funding.

Recent cuts and freezes in US funding have further intensified this fragility; more than 60% of programmes addressing gender-based violence were reduced or suspended.

Overall humanitarian funding for Ukraine has fallen dramatically and consistently year-on-year, showing a clear downward trend — from USD 3.77 billion in 2022, to USD 1.47 billion in 2025.

If the international community is serious about supporting Ukraine’s future, not only its territorial integrity but also its democratic and social foundations, humanitarian needs must be met. Particularly, feminist and women-led actors must be treated as central partners, not peripheral implementers. They are not only delivering aid more equitably; they are actively shaping the legal and social contract that will define post-war Ukraine.

Resilience is not an infinite resource. It is sustained by people. And in Ukraine today, many of those people are women, holding the humanitarian line, defending equality in law, and doing so under conditions that would exhaust any system.

The question is not whether they are capable. They have proven that they are. The question is whether the international community will match their commitment with the trust and resources women deserve.

Maria Mospina. Anastasiia Krysko Anastasiia Krysko

Maria Mospina is an 86-year-old, visually impaired and mobility-restricted internally displaced person currently living in Dnipro. Since 2023, she has been living in a small apartment in Dnipro together with her son and daughter-in-law, a space that became their refuge after they were forced to leave home.

She was born and raised in the village of Myrna Dolyna in the Luhansk region, where her life was deeply rooted in the land. For decades, she worked with animals, and her days began before sunrise and ended at dusk. Everything changed in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Today, at 86, she requires constant care. Advanced cataracts have taken her sight. Maria now depends on the steady support of her family as she navigates this new and fragile chapter of her life. Sunlight irritates Maria’s eyes, and at home, the windows are covered with bedsheets to block the glare. Her daily comfort comes from the family cat curling up to sleep on her lap, and the church liturgy she listens to on her phone.

Prolonged power outages make it difficult to charge electronic devices, including her blood pressure monitor and glucometer. When the electricity goes out in the family’s apartment, the heating disappears as well, and the temperature inside drops to 12 degrees Celsius, leaving the rooms cold and unforgiving.

Through a project funded by the European Union, HelpAge International, in consortium with ActionAid Eastern Europe, Maria has been provided with hygiene kits, assistive devices, and a walker to support her mobility. In addition, a social worker visits her twice a month, offering psychosocial support sessions that bring not only practical assistance, but also human connection and care. “This kind of assistance is very important for elderly people, as we have no money and need to buy these items every time.”

Valentyna. Anastasiia Krysko Anastasiia Krysko

Valentyna Terlepnova is from Myrnohrad, a mining town once known as Dymytrov in the Donetsk region. For more than four decades, she worked at the “Central” mine, helping build it from the ground up before continuing there in operations and later construction. Over 42 years of service, she earned the respect of her colleagues and management alike.

“I am proud of myself,” she says quietly. “I never skipped work. I worked conscientiously.”

Her life changed in 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion reached her town. Shelling shattered windows, destroyed balconies, and left buildings torn open. Glass covered the entrances and courtyards. One nearby building was struck directly, and a grenade hit the second entrance and exploded inside. The newly built kindergarten was completely destroyed.

“It was scary to look at,” she recalls. “There was no water, no electricity. Broken glass everywhere.”

The Red Cross evacuated her on 23 August. Today, she lives in a dormitory-style centre, where she says she feels safe and cared for. The staff provided clothes, shoes, blankets and basic necessities.

Despite her age, Valentyna remains remarkably independent. She slowly walks to the shop and pharmacy and insists on caring for herself. Life in the shelter includes more than safety. Residents participate in painting sessions, physical exercises, creative workshops and group discussions. For Valentyna, these activities are not just a way to pass time; they are a rediscovery.

Iryna Koval is a humanitarian worker with ActionAid in Ukraine. Since March 2022, ActionAid has worked with more than 50 women’s rights organisations, and minority- and young people-led partner organisations across Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova. 

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