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Supporting women in Ukraine: Five ways UN Women delivers critical aid and services
Massive blackouts in Ukraine: What it means for women and girls
After four years of full-scale invasion, Ukraine's women facing deepening funding and energy crisis
After four years of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, women’s organizations lead humanitarian response amid funding cuts. Support UN Women's work with Ukrainian women's organizations.
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Olga Lakhno, 34, and her son Roman, 8, are at home in warm clothes because there is no heating or electricity. They are getting ready for school, doing their homework by the light of a battery-powered lamp, and keeping warm and cooking on a gas stove. Kyiv. Photo: UN Women / Olha Ivashchenko
February 2026 marks four years of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Four years of devastating war, with thousands killed, millions of women and families displaced from their homes and millions more living without essential utilities – heating, electricity, water – and with reduced access to healthcare, education, and employment.
2025 was the deadliest year for civilians in Ukraine since February 2022. More than 5,000 women and girls have been killed and nearly 14,000 injured since the onset of the war. These are the figures confirmed by the UN, but the actual toll is likely higher.
Ukrainian women are leading the war response despite escalating funding crisis
Against all odds, the women of Ukraine have been carrying the country forward. They are sustaining communities when basic infrastructure and services break down, caring for families, running businesses, driving transportation, and fighting on the front lines.
But resilience doesn’t run on empty. The women of Ukraine are fighting another emergency now – international donors have made dramatic funding cuts, severely impacting their ability to cope with the war and support communities that depend on them.
Half of women-led organizations scale down or suspend programmes
79 per cent of 108 women-led and women’s rights organizations surveyed in Ukraine report significant disruptions to their operations in 2025. Half have scaled down and suspended one or more programmes. The programmes that support gender-based violence services and women’s economic empowerment have suffered the deepest cuts. Systematic attacks on the energy infrastructure are also having a direct effect on women and women’s organizations’ ability to function.
How to help women in Ukraine
Stand with UN Women to support women leading Ukraine's response.
UN Women is staying and delivering alongside women's organizations and government authorities in Ukraine.
The decisions on funding cuts have life-changing consequences for women and girls in Ukraine. They cannot be an after-thought. They need immediate and flexible funding support now.
Ukrainian women must remain at the heart of the war response, peace negotiations and gender-responsive recovery.
Media Center
The impact of foreign assistance cuts on women’s rights and women-led organizations in Ukraine
