Life safety in Ukraine under current conditions

How do people live in the Russian occupation?

Published

09.08.2024

Ukrainians are deprived of their property, tortured and killed on the temporarily occupied territories. Also, Russia is predictably eliminating Ukrainian national identity, while the dissenters are being deported to the Russian Far East and replaced with Russians.

The Russian occupiers use murder and rape as terror tools. When Bucha, a city in the North of Kyiv region, was occupied, the Russian military captured 25 teen girls and young women in the cellar. The Russian occupiers regularly raped them, as a result of which nine of those women got pregnant.

On March 28, The Times published an interview with a rape victim. According to her, the soldiers came to her house, shot the dog and then her husband “because he is a Nazi,” put a gun to her head and raped the woman in turns while her son was crying in the boiler room. On April 12, 2022, BBC News interviewed a 50-year-old woman from a village 70 kilometers to the west of Kyiv, who was raped at gunpoint by a Chechen ally of the Russian armed forces. Much more rape cases were recorded, but it will become possible to publish more stories when the rape victims are ready to talk about their experience.

Russia establishes totalitarianism on the temporarily occupied territories. Russia appoints local puppet rulers on the spots and liquidates the dissenters. In the first three days of the full-scale war alone, at least 60 local Ukrainian deputies and mayors of Ukrainian cities were reported to have been abducted by the Russian forces. Russia also forces Ukrainians to receive Russian passports. At the beginning of 2024, Putin adopted a law on the right to a simplified procedure of obtaining Russian passports by the citizens of Ukraine who were born and lived in Crimea and Sevastopol before March 18, 2014. All those reluctant to have Russian passports are subject to dismissal and deprived of social payments.

Russia also seizes and burns Ukrainian literature and history books, clears the media landscape of all Ukrainian artists and cultural figures. Along with the establishment of a loyal interim government, Russian is creating lists of local leaders to be repressed. These are all steps planned in advance by Moscow to systematically destroy the identity of Ukrainians.

Russia deports Ukrainians en masse from their native lands. As of May 2022, more than 1.3 million Ukrainians, including 232,000 children, were deported to Russia by force. Many of Ukrainian deportees were placed in filtration camps with the aim of “checking” them. After that, they were forcefully transferred deep into Russia, in some cases to the Far East. Deported Ukrainians always have no access to communication services, are not allowed to move around, and the fate of many such people is unknown.

Russia replaces deported Ukrainians with ethnic Russians. Over the past decade, the population of ethnic Russians in Crimea increased from approximately 250,000 to 1 million. This is Russia’s typical colonial practice since the 18th century.

What will happen to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine?

Published

03.09.2024

Ukraine insists that its territorial integrity must be restored within the internationally recognized borders. The attainment of this goal depends on how timely and effectively Ukraine receives the military assistance from its partner countries. Otherwise, Russia will occupy even more Ukrainian territories and continue to enforce its authoritarian regime on new lands.

One of the points of the Ukrainian Peace Formula is the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Russia must recognize the territorial integrity of Ukraine in line with the UN General Assembly Resolutions and a range of relevant treaties. The territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine must be restored within its internationally recognized borders, defined at the moment of declaration of independence of Ukraine in 1991, and include all Ukrainian territories that were temporarily occupied by Russia without exception. This is the key condition for the restoration of global order and ensuring universal respect for the UN Statute.

If Ukraine receives military assistance on time, the temporarily occupied territories will be liberated by the Ukrainian military sooner or later. If the war is frozen, that is if Ukraine is not provided with timely military assistance, our country will be unable to move the front line. In that case, the temporarily occupied territories will continue to live under the Russian occupation regime and Russia will likely capture even more Ukrainian lands.

In this context, an example of Avdiyivka can be given. The Ukrainian forces deployed in the vicinity of Avdiyivka simply experienced “shell hunger” in the winter of 2023-2024. This was the main reason for the Ukrainian army’s retreat from the city. Neither the United States, nor the EU approved a decision to provide Ukraine with so much needed assistance packages at the beginning of 2024. Russia prevailed in terms of means of destruction. Thus, due to the long-lasting lack of support from partners, Ukraine temporarily lost a strategically important city where a major railway junction and an industrial center are situated.

What is the difference between the life of Ukrainians in Ukraine before the war and during the war?

Published

30.08.2024

The war has affected the lives of all Ukrainians. Since February 24, 2024, more than 3.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes and move to a new location within Ukraine. More than a million Ukrainians were forced to take up arms and go to defend Ukraine, and tens of thousands of them went missing or were taken prisoner. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are under Russian occupation, and it is unknown how many of them have died. Many people have lost their homes and livelihoods. Almost every Ukrainian now has a relative or acquaintance who has been killed.

All Ukrainians who stay in their home country live with the constant feeling of being a target, as Russian missiles can reach any region. This is compounded by restrictions on rights due to martial law, closed airports, economic problems, and blackouts. As a result, all Ukrainians are living under stress, and daily routines are becoming a challenge.

Ukrainians have to defend their country with arms in hand – there are more than 850,000 people in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), and together with the border guards, the National Guard, and the combat units of the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, and the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Defense Forces total more than a million people. All of them had to leave their families, jobs or studies, hobbies and leisure activities to defend the state. Six months ago, President Zelenskyy announced that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since February 24, 2022. However, he did not mention the number of missing persons, so this figure is actually higher and has grown since then. Thousands of Ukrainian defenders have been taken prisoner, and many of them are still in captivity.

Russia occupied 27% of Ukrainian territory. The people who lived there were either forced to leave everything behind and flee, or were killed, or are under occupation and experiencing Russian terror every day. More than 4 million Ukrainians have lost their homes. It is unknown how many of them have died. According to rough estimates, 100,000 civilians were killed in Mariupol alone. It can be assumed that the total number of Ukrainians killed is several hundred thousand.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, 3.6 million Ukrainians have fled their homes and moved to other regions of Ukraine. These people had to leave virtually everything they had and start their lives from scratch.

But the key thing is that all Ukrainians live with a constant feeling of being a target, because Russian missiles can reach their targets in any region. Since the Russians constantly shell Ukraine, targeting civilians, every Ukrainian is at permanent risk.

The war has also made everyday life difficult for Ukrainians. Due to the martial law in Ukraine, there are partial restrictions on the rights of citizens: no elections – no opportunity to elect the government and be elected, closed borders for men, restrictions on peaceful assemblies, curfews, and restrictions on access to certain infrastructure facilities. The war has caused major environmental and economic problems: destruction of businesses, difficulties with exports, mining of fields, transportation problems due to the closure of airports, problems with investments and blackouts, which also complicate the work of all businesses. Ukrainians

The war also complicates the daily life of Ukrainians. Due to the martial law in Ukraine, there are partial restrictions on the rights of citizens: no elections – the ability to elect the government and be elected, closed borders for men, restrictions on peaceful assembly, curfews, restrictions on access to certain infrastructure facilities. The war has caused major environmental and economic problems: the destruction of businesses, difficulties with exports, mined fields, transportation problems due to the closure of airports, problems with investments and blackouts, which also complicate the work of all businesses.

Ukrainians suffer blackouts almost every day as Russia is destroying the power grid, which means re-planning their entire daily routine, especially for residents of fully electrified high-rise buildings. Ukrainian children are forced to study online because many schools have been destroyed or are in the war zone. And because of constant air raids, people are forced to stop almost all processes during the day or lose sleep at night. The result of all this is constant stress for every Ukrainian.

The Russians are committing real genocide in the occupied territories: murder, torture, rape, kidnapping, deportation, deliberately getting rid of active citizens, including veterans, military, volunteers, civil servants, officials, writers, teachers, and professors, especially of the Ukrainian language and history, and banning Ukrainian identity and everything that reminds of it (books, monuments, plaques, signs, etc.).

What price has Ukraine paid for defending its sovereignty and Europe’s security since February 24, 2022?

Published

23.02.2026

Since February 24, 2022, Ukraine has suffered large-scale human, economic, and social losses while defending its sovereignty and internationally recognized borders. Russia’s full-scale invasion has become the most severe armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War. It affects not only Ukraine’s security, but also the situation in neighboring countries and Europe’s overall security.

Duration of the war. As of February 2026, the war has been ongoing for more than four years, since February 2022. During this time, significant parts of Ukrainian territory were temporarily under the control of Russia’s armed forces, although many of them were later returned to Ukrainian control as a result of defensive operations and counteroffensives.

Human losses and humanitarian consequences. From the start of the full-scale war on February 24, 2022, through the end of 2025, at least about 15,000 civilians were killed and more than 40,000 people were injured, according to confirmed UN data. These figures include only cases that could be officially verified. In reality, the number of victims is significantly higher, as it is not possible to quickly and accurately collect information in active combat zones.

The war has also forced millions of people to leave their homes. Approximately 3.8 million Ukrainians remain internally displaced within the country, while more than 5 million are abroad as refugees or people seeking protection. In terms of scale, this is one of the largest waves of forced displacement in Europe since the Second World War.

According to assessments by UNICEF, UNESCO, and the World Bank, millions of Ukrainian children have been studying remotely or in a blended format for years due to security risks and the destruction of schools. As of the end of 2024, more than 3,400 educational institutions had been damaged or destroyed.

Destruction and economic losses. According to a joint assessment by the World Bank, the European Commission, the UN, and the Government of Ukraine (Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, RDNA4), total medium-term recovery and reconstruction needs for Ukraine exceed USD 500 billion. Direct physical damage as of the end of 2024 was estimated at approximately USD 176 billion, largely due to the destruction of housing, infrastructure, and energy and transport networks.

According to Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment data, more than one-tenth of Ukraine’s housing stock has been damaged or destroyed as a result of hostilities.

The security dimension for Europe. The war in Ukraine has forced many European Union and NATO countries to reconsider their approaches to defense, energy security, and military readiness. Russia’s behavior clearly demonstrates that without adequate deterrence, armed aggression can pose a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to neighboring countries and Europe as a whole.

Both on the front line and on the home front, the war has reshaped security approaches: European countries have increased defense budgets, expanded military support for Ukraine, significantly reduced imports of Russian gas and oil, accelerated the development of renewable energy, and signed new long-term contracts with alternative suppliers, reducing energy dependence on Russia.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has underscored the importance of the inviolability of internationally recognized borders and adherence to the principles of the UN Charter, and has become a catalyst for closer cooperation among European countries aimed at preventing similar acts of aggression in the future.