Ukraine: After Three Years of War, the Population Is Exhausted
Three years of relentless war in Ukraine have caused massive displacements, psychological trauma, and human rights violations. A generation of children is being denied the right to education while millions live in precarious conditions. INTERSOS, operating in the country since the beginning of the conflict, continues to provide essential aid and psychosocial support to the most vulnerable communities, focusing on remote and frontline areas.
Ukraine enters its fourth year of war, and the Ukrainian population is exhausted by increasingly complex humanitarian needs. Attacks on cities and villages along the front line in the east, south, and northeast of the country continue unabated. Civilian infrastructure, such as power grids, water supply networks, and transportation infrastructure, are targeted, disrupting essential services like water, gas, and winter heating and affecting homes, collective shelters, schools, and healthcare facilities.
Hospitals and schools are not spared from attacks. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported over 2,100 attacks on healthcare facilities, resulting in at least 197 deaths, including healthcare workers and patients, and many more injuries, further disrupting health services. Since the beginning of the war, nearly 2,000 schools have been damaged, and 371 educational facilities have been completely destroyed. Schools that remain operational in many areas are overcrowded and lack sufficient teachers. In frontline areas where in-person education is impossible, e-learning is not always a viable alternative due to unstable internet connections and unreliable electricity. Today, in Ukraine, an entire generation of children is partially or totally denied the right to education.
The ongoing violence in the country has caused and continues to cause massive displacements, with government evacuation orders covering increasingly wider areas. From the escalation of the war in February 2022 to mid-October 2024, nearly 6.9 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded, 92% of whom have sought protection in Europe. Within Ukraine, 3.6 million people are internally displaced. 82% of these people have been displaced for over a year and still have no practical prospects of returning soon.
Ukrainian civilians are subject to serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. Verified civilian casualties between 2022 and the end of October 2024 reached nearly 39,000, including over 12,000 deaths. Among these are more than 2,400 children.
The Ukrainian situation is now a consolidated crisis: In addition to physical destruction, the prolonged war has caused a severe economic crisis and exposed millions of people to trauma and psychological stress due to constant uncertainty and fear of attacks. Although the worsening of mental health affects all age groups, children are particularly vulnerable: about 1.5 million children in Ukraine are at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and other mental health problems. With a generalized deterioration of people’s mental health, episodes of abuse and gender-based violence are also increasing.
INTERSOS intervention
INTERSOS has been active in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. With our partners, we are among the few organizations able to operate in high-risk, often neglected areas through dedicated mobile units and field offices. We operate in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa areas. Our intervention focuses on remote and rural regions, particularly those close to the front line, where the population has been significantly and directly affected by the trauma of war. In these areas, villages are almost completely destroyed, and agricultural lands are mined.
In 2024, together with our partners, we have assisted 123,881 people.
INTERSOS teams carry out emergency distributions, especially in border areas where everything is lacking. They provide kits to repair homes damaged by attacks, hygiene kits for families, drinking water, and materials useful for coping with winter, such as blankets, stove pallets, and solid fuel.
At the same time, we individually support the most vulnerable people through protection interventions: we offer psychosocial and mental health support, support for survivors of gender-based violence, legal and documentary assistance, and distribute cash to meet basic needs.
In the health sector, we offer basic medical assistance, carry out prevention and management activities for non-communicable diseases, distribute life-saving medicines, and provide cash contributions to support healthcare expenses.
Given the pervasive presence of unexploded ordnance in Ukrainian territory, our teams also conduct mine risk education sessions.
123.881
people assisted
36.393
people received basic necessities and kits to repair homes
34.930
people received health services
31.617
people received protective services
16.012
People benefited from GBV response and prevention interventions