Women are disproportionately affected by energy cuts, and their specific needs should be included in Ukraine’s winter planning, UN Women assessment finds
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Kyiv, September 23, 2026. As Ukraine approaches the fifth winter since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, amid escalating attacks on its energy infrastructure, UN Women Ukraine has released the Gendered Impact of the Energy Crisis in Ukraine Assessment. It sets out how the energy crisis affects women and offers recommendations to support winterization preparedness and response.
A key focus of the humanitarian community’s 2026-2027 Winter Response Plan is supporting more than 2.1 million of the most vulnerable people to cope with the expected renewed disruption to electricity, heating and water this winter. Greater attention to women’s specific needs and challenges, such as care responsibilities is needed.
UN Women’s assessment shows how earlier this year women bore a disproportionate share of the energy crisis, facing greater financial strain, safety concerns and health impacts than men, and with fewer resources to cope. Nearly three-quarters of women (73.8 per cent) reported having no backup energy source, such as a generator, battery system or portable power station, compared with just over half of men (51.5 per cent). The pattern is likely to repeat this winter unless womens’ specific needs and challenges are taken into account.
Women enter the energy crisis with fewer financial resources to absorb its costs and heavier care responsibilities. In 2025-2026, 56.3 per cent of women reported facing moderate to severe financial constraints, struggling to afford food, clothing or other essentials, compared with 35.4 per cent of men. Women were far more likely to be the primary caregiver for children (44.3 per cent, compared with 26.4 per cent of men), a responsibility that outages make harder to fulfil, from securing food and water to keeping children warm, clean and connected to schooling.
Energy disruptions also directly affect women's safety, health, and unpaid care and house work: 41.9 per cent of women reported feeling less safe due to electricity or heating disruptions, compared with 24.3 per cent of men, and 38.5 per cent of women said the disruptions had negatively affected their physical health, compared with 22.8 per cent of men. Four in ten caregivers of children (41.1 per cent) and of persons with disabilities (43.1 per cent) reported spending more time on care. Households with children were more likely to report extra domestic work (around 40 per cent, compared with 30.5 per cent of those without children) and extra time securing electricity or heating (around 49 per cent, compared with 35.5 per cent). The strain is financial too: 18.1 per cent of people caring for persons with disabilities had to borrow money or take on debt, more than double the overall rate.
Based on the assessment's findings, UN Women recommends the following measures for the 2026-2027 winter response, intended for the Government of Ukraine at all levels, the United Nations Humanitarian Team, funding and humanitarian partners:
- Recognize caregivers, most of them women, as a priority group in winter targeting, and prioritize them in cash assistance and psychosocial support. This includes single parents, households with children under five, and those caring for older persons or people with disabilities.
- Support households with heavy caregiving responsibilities to access batteries, power stations, generators or other backup energy solutions through cash or in-kind assistance.
- Deliver cash assistance to economically vulnerable women-headed households before the peak outage months of December–February, and extend electricity and heating subsidies to them, including those in urban areas.
- Make resilience points and warming centres safe and accessible for women, older persons, people with disabilities and their caregivers during prolonged outages, with heating, lighting, charging, connectivity, accessible sanitation and child-friendly study and play areas.
- Monitor the winter response using data disaggregated by sex, age and disability, tracking outcomes such as energy access, cash assistance, caregiving burden and whether people feel safer, and involve women-led and women's rights organizations in preparing, delivering and monitoring that response.
“Women are preparing for another winter energy crisis with even less access to security, livelihoods, education, healthcare and decision-making power. Yet as women’s needs grow, international humanitarian and development support that aims to reduce gender inequalities is diminishing. Investments in energy resilience and winter preparedness are being decided now, and it is urgent that they include women’s priorities - and that women’s rights organizations have sufficient resources to continue delivering lifesaving and essential services this winter,” said Sabine Freizer Gunes, UN Women Representative in Ukraine.
About the assessment
The Gendered Impact of the Energy Crisis in Ukraine Assessment combines quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative component was a nationally representative survey of 1,200 adults across Ukraine, including 732 women and 468 men, conducted on 25–26 February 2026 using the CATI method (computer-assisted telephone interviews). Numbers were generated at random using the prefixes of Ukraine's three largest mobile operators. The survey excludes Ukrainians currently residing outside the country.
In addition to the national sample, a dedicated in-person survey of 800 adults was conducted in Kyiv. The qualitative component comprised 10 key informant interviews and 8 focus group discussions with women and men in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odesa and Kharkiv.
This assessment was commissioned by UN Women as part of its TransformCare Global Initiative and conducted by Voluntas, with funding from UK International Development from the UK government.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UN Women, the United Nations, or any of its affiliated organizations.
This publication was funded through the UK International Development from the UK government; however, the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government’s official policies.
About UN Women
UN Women exists to advance women’s rights, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. As the lead UN entity on gender equality, we shift laws, institutions, social behaviors and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world for all women and girls. We keep the rights of women and girls at the centre of global progress – always, everywhere. Because gender equality is not just what we do. It is who we are.
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