KYIV: It has been more than a year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and as the war evolved, so has the humanitarian situation on the ground.
Many established aid organisations across Ukraine were forced to pivot when the conflict escalated to serve millions of people suddenly in need of assistance.
Among them is the Enjoying Life Foundation, which opened a care support centre in a shopping mall in Kyiv just weeks after the invasion last February. They cater to the more than 200,000 internally displaced people in the capital alone.
The centre is designed to be a one-stop shop. People can receive items like clothes, cookware, toys and hygiene products. Legal and mental health services are also available.
The group said that providing assistance has gotten tougher.
“Of late, it is getting harder and harder to get aid. International NGOs are donating less to Kyiv as it is not an occupied city and not close to the frontlines, but Kyiv continues to receive refugees,” said project manager of the support centre, Ms Nataliia Leontieva.
However, the volunteers still find solace in what they do.
“Volunteering is a form of therapy for many of us here. Moreover, we have been brought together by a shared experience of being refugees. That grief has united us. Now, we have something that feels like a family,” said one volunteer among the roughly 100 volunteers at the centre, Ms Nataliia Anikieva.
She is from Mariupol, a port city now under Russian control, and has been working at the centre since June after being forced to leave her hometown.
THREAT TO AID WORKERS
NGOs on the ground have been adapting to the elements and changing nature of the conflict over the past year, as they attempt to help more than 5 million people in the country who remain internally displaced and more than 17 million in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.
Protection services, cash assistance and the distribution of winter items are among the ways the International Rescue Committee is currently helping local populations.
However, it has not all been smooth-sailing.
“We noticed a big change in autumn last year when the repeated and systematic attacks started on civilian infrastructure including supply systems for water, for power, for heating, for gas,” said the organisation’s Ukraine country director Marysia Zapasnik.
Thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed across the country, leaving many humanitarian workers themselves directly impacted by the conflict.
ECONOMY IN TATTERS
Apart from the damage on homes, Russian missile attacks on critical infrastructure continue to hurt Ukraine’s economic output.
Ukraine’s economy contracted more than 30 per cent last year, with inflation soaring to more than 25 per cent.
Ukraine’s central bank expects the economy to expand about 0.3 per cent this year.
More robust growth is predicted in 2024, but for now the economic impact of the war will continue to bite.
The International Monetary Fund has warned the country could need more than US$40 billion in financial support this year.
According to the Rating Sociological Group, a third of people that had a job before the conflict are currently unemployed. For businesses that are still in operation, air alerts and power outages are a major disruption and a risk to employees.
However, efforts to encourage people to start their own businesses are underway. Grants awarded last year to encourage people to do so generated about 8,000 jobs, said director of the State Employment Center Yuliia Zhovtiak.
But major issues in the labour market persist. She said the aviation and tourism sectors have been hit the hardest.
“Nowadays, it is more difficult for people to find work because employers’ demand has decreased, and businesses cannot operate in war zones or on occupied territories. We have a lot of destroyed enterprises, more than a thousand were relocated from the combat zone to other regions of Ukraine,” said Ms Zhovtiak.
