© UNHCR/Oleksii Barkov
Ukraine
How your support is keeping hope alive in Ukraine
With the war in Ukraine continuing to shatter lives, your donations are providing vital aid to families like Mariia and Anatolii’s.
Ukraine
With the war in Ukraine continuing to shatter lives, your donations are providing vital aid to families like Mariia and Anatolii’s.
The full-scale war has had a devastating impact on millions of Ukrainians, each with their own unique story of courage and resilience.
Mariia and Anatolii’s families have lived in the same rural village in the Kharkiv region for generations. Married for 52 years, the couple raised three sons together and deeply loved their home and community.
“We had a good life in our village,” says Mariia. “We felt like we were flying on wings.”
But this happiness was stolen from them overnight when Russian forces occupied their village.
“We ended up under occupation for seven months,” says Mariia. “We were constantly afraid. We hid our sons and risked our lives every single day.”
Although the Russian occupation of Kharkiv ended, the violence and suffering did not. Mariia and Anatolii tragically lost one of their sons from an injury he sustained while fighting to defend Ukraine in the east.
When Russia launched a new wave of attacks in their area, their village was struck by missiles, killing their dog, badly damaging their home and forcing them to flee.
Thanks to generous donors, the couple was able to find shelter and comfort at a dormitory in Kharkiv city. With your support, UNHCR has upgraded shelters like this across Ukraine to improve living conditions for displaced people with nowhere else to go – especially older people like Mariia and Anatolii.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, aerial strikes have killed thousands, destroyed homes and torn families apart. With ongoing attacks, communities across the country live in fear, never knowing when the next missile, drone or bomb will strike.
Throughout this crisis, your donations have helped UNHCR support hundreds of thousands of war-affected Ukrainians with:
Mariia clings to the hope of a brighter future, when she can finally be reunited with her family.
“The only thing I pray for is that the war ends, and for us to return home to our village. We want to believe we will live to see that day,” she says.
Thank you for ensuring that Ukrainian families can find safe shelter, emergency aid and psychological support when they need it most.
And thank you for giving families like Mariia’s the hope of peace, safety and home.