Daria Zymenko combines art and activism in her work. In her creative projects, Daria explores personal and socially significant topics, including sexual violence and its consequences. She is also a member of the NGO “SEMA Ukraine”, which brings together women who have experienced sexual violence in captivity or during the occupation, a speaker, and participates in conferences and advocacy events.

As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is set to begin its fourth year, more than 1.7 million women and girls remain internally displaced throughout the country, according to IOM data. The war has been devastating for all the 3.7 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine – and also imposes gender-specific burdens on women and girls.

Khrystyna Kit is the Head and Chairwoman of the Board of JurFem, one of the first associations of women lawyers in Ukraine, which, since the beginning of the Russia’s full-scale war, has become a place of support for survivors of sexual violence and all types of gender discrimination. The organization has around 60 lawyers who provide legal assistance to survivors of sexual violence across Ukraine.

A new report on femicide reveals that 60% of all gender-based killings of women are committed by intimate partners or family members. On November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a new report titled "Femicide in 2023: A Global Assessment of Femicide Committed by Intimate Partners/Family Members".

Kyiv, November 25, 2024 – Today marks the launch of an awareness campaign aimed at raising public awareness about gender-based violence against women and girls, promoting its prevention and response, and informing about support services available for survivors.

For the first 50 days, I was kept in a torture chamber in Izolyatsia prison,” shared Liudmila Huseynova. “In this place, you become a person without rights. From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., you stand with a sack covering your head, and your hands in cuffs. You can get beaten for no reason. Your blood freezes as you hear the screams from others held in captivity, thinking maybe you’ll be next.”

The UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the UNFPA Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, together with the European Union (EU), started the Phase II of the regional programme “EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence”. The programme aims to reduce gender discriminatory attitudes and practices between women and men in institutional and community spheres, including unpaid domestic and care work in six Eastern Partnership countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine.

New York, 22 February - Two years of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine has taken thousands of lives, caused untold destruction, displaced millions, traumatized a generation, torn families and communities, and devastated the economy. The total cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine is estimated by the World Bank, European Commission, United Nations and the Government of Ukraine at USD 486 billion over the next decade. This war, like all wars, takes a bigger toll on women and girls, who disproportionally carry its burden.

This opinion was expressed by Sabine Freizer Gunes, UN Women Representative in Ukraine. She believes that attention to gender equality issues in Ukraine helped the country to respond promptly to the problem of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and to counter it.

Before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Julia Kononchuk was studying at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University. She won a scholarship to study in Great Britain and was supposed to begin university there in the fall of 2022, but her visa was not granted in time.

Women and marginalized groups have key role to play in leading decision making on Ukraine’s recovery, which should help build the country back better and more equal. This was the main message of representatives of the Ukrainian government, women rights organizations, civil society, and the private sector that convened at gender responsive event held ahead of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.

Diana Andrunyk is a social photographer and photojournalist who has been working in artistic and advertising photography for 11 years. She has been working with Veteranka, the Women Veteran Movement, since 2021 on several projects together with military personnel. One of them is "A woman warrior is first and foremost a woman.” Five months after the full-scale Russian invasion, Andrunyk was forced to leave Ukraine and move to the United Kingdom (UK) for the safety of her family.

Veronika Lytvynenko is a volunteer and graphic designer for the Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine found her in Kyiv, and her entire family in Mariupol.

Ukrainian women-led civil society organizations were among the first to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. In partnership with UN Women, they continue to play a leading role, which is key for the post-war recovery.

Since the launch of the Russian Federation full-scale invasion on 24 February, 2022, over 2,000 women have been confirmed dead in attacks that have wrecked homes and civilian structures across Ukraine. Total numbers are likely to be much higher: according to the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, women account for nearly 40 per cent of the over 21,000 civilian casualties recorded in 2022. And of the estimated 7.9 million internally displaced peoples in Ukraine, women now constitute at least 90 per cent.

Oleksandra Matviychuk is a human rights activist from Ukraine. Following the “Maidan” demonstrations in November 2013, which led to the ousting of the Government and left many casualties among activists, she created the Euromaidan SOS Facebook page. As head of the Centre for Civil Liberties, she also provided legal assistance to protesters victimized during the crackdown. Together with her team, Matviychuk has documented over 18,000 reported war crimes against the Ukrainian people since 2014. The Centre for Civil Liberties won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

Larysa Denysenko is a journalist, attorney, human rights activist and co-founder of the Association of Women’s Lawyers of Ukraine “JurFem”. Before the war, Denysenko and JurFem mainly advocated for women’s leadership in legal professions, provided mentorship and supported strategic court cases related to domestic violence and gender-based discrimination. Now, this has extended to representing the interests of those who have survived conflict-related sexual violence allegedly perpetrated by the Russian military in Ukraine.

As of 25 March, more than 10 million people had been forcibly displaced by the war in Ukraine, with more than 3.7 million fleeing to neighbouring countries. To gage the differential impacts of the war and the specific needs of vulnerable groups, UN Women and CARE International produced a Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) and drew out recommendations on how to improve humanitarian responses.

Millions of people have been fleeing their homes in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022 turned into a full-fledged war. In Cahul, a border region in the south of the Republic of Moldova, local public authorities, volunteers and civil society are doing what they can to help, guide and host those on the move.

As a result of the Russian Federation’s military invasion of Ukraine, close to 2 million people have been internally displaced inside the country and more than 3 million refugees have already crossed international borders. As of 13 March 2022, there were 106,994 refugees from Ukraine in Moldova, most being women and children. This is also the case of an extended family of 12 members of the Roma community who were forced to flee their homes in the village of Arbuzinka, Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine, to seek safety, protection and assistance in the Republic of Moldova.