War in Ukraine: Our humanitarian aid for the people in need

Maria's story of escape from occupation

Maria (name changed) endured bombing, occupation, and flight from her hometown of Kherson, Ukraine. When the Russian occupation army captured Kherson, she fled to a village with her children and great-grandmother. The constant threat of enemy shelling sent her into panic attacks, leaving her physically and emotionally exhausted. Amid the chaos, Maria's resilience prevailed. She defied the occupation, relying on information from people who had fled to plan an escape. Her unwavering determination carried her forward, holding her children close as they fled. Within days, she and her family were able to find refuge in Lviv, where Maria reached out to psychological counselors from our partner Malteser Ukraine for support.

WINTER AID UKRAINE: A WARM BARN FOR GRANDMA NINA

Nina Navídríz lives in the village of Korobochkine, about 50 kilometers southeast of the city of Kharkiv. A missile attack has destroyed her house in the middle of the night, and she miraculously survived. Leaving the village, where she has spent her whole live, wasn’t an option for Grandma Nina. She moved into a barn which we prepared for the upcoming winter.

44 Days Without Daylight

Together with her family, Nadiya has lived in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv when the war broke out. Along with Kiev and Odessa, Kharkiv was one of the first cities to be attacked by the Russian army at the beginning of the war. The family immediatley takes refuge in the basement of their apartment building, where they remain for the next 44 days - without seeing any daylight. When they realize that there is no end of the war in sight they flee from Kharkiv to Lviv in the west of the country. There they are safe for the time being.

Searching for safety: Displaced for the second time

When the first bombs fell over Mariupol on February 24, 2022, and Darya and Stanislav were awakened by the explosions at five in the morning, memories immediately came flooding back to them. It was only in 2014 that the couple had fled Russian attacks from Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. They fled to Mariupol with their two-year-old son Bogdan. At that time, the Russian army had attacked cities in eastern Ukraine and eventually annexed Crimea. By 2022, there was repeated fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army along the so-called contact line in Donbass, culminating in Russia's war of aggression on large parts of Ukraine in February 2022.

Faces of War - Stories from Mariupol

Kateryna Sukhomlynova was so many things until the war began in Ukraine: A Malteser employee in Mariupol, a paramedic, a member of the city council and a volunteer in the local police association. Today, the 44-year-old is one of millions of refugees from Ukraine and homeless. But Kateryna Sukhomlynova is a strong woman. She travels tirelessly through Europe, together with her 17-year-old daughter, reporting on what she experienced in Mariupol during the first weeks of the war.

The humanitarian situation in Ukraine

Interview with Pavlo Titko, Head of Malteser Ukraine

Pavlo Titko, head of Malteser Ukraine in Lviv, has been on permanent duty since the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine on 24 February 2022. He tells us about the current humanitarian situation in Ukraine, how the people are feeling, which relief supplies are most urgently needed and how he himself is dealing with this extreme situation.

"All that was in my mind was the war."

When Katja and Sascha married, he was already a soldier at the front. Shortly afterwards, Katja became pregnant. When her son Zachar was born, Sascha returned to Pokrovsk and Katja was overjoyed. But the man she married had changed. Sascha suddenly could no longer walk among people, crowds in the street frightened him. He became aggressive towards the family and at night he screamed in his sleep. Katja finally persuaded him to get help at our psychosocial support centre.

Faces of our work: Interview with Oksana Khmelnytska

47-year-old Oksana Khmelnytska is a trauma therapist and project coordinator for our partner organization "Psychological Crisis Service" in Ukraine. On the ground she leads a Malteser International project that provides psychosocial support to people suffering from the consequences of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In this interview she talks about how people in the region are doing today and the challenges displaced persons face in everyday life, especially those who have fled the conflict areas.

Oksana's Story

Around 47,000 displaced people live in the Ukrainian town of Sievierodonetsk. Oksana is one of them. She also has the job of helping others to find a new beginning. Read the story of her inspiring journey from hopelessness to hope.