Aid sector faces new strains in Ukraine conflict as Russia bears down

In the early hours of Oct. 10, Russian forces launched 83 missiles at multiple Ukrainian cities, and explosions were reported in Lviv and Ternopil. A week later, several explosions rocked Kyiv as suicide drones set residential buildings ablaze, and the latest wave of attacks saw more explosions there on Oct. 31. The ongoing offensive is among the most extensive attacks reported since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 — and it has laid bare to the aid sector that the Russian-Ukrainian war “shows no sign of abating,” as one high-level official put it.  

When Devex visited Polish refugee centers In March, aid workers, volunteers, and refugees said they were expecting the war to end within weeks. But the recent surge in attacks has worried the aid sector — which has seen resources and international interest wane in the eight months since Putin invaded. On Oct. 25, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk called on those who have fled the country to stay abroad at least until spring in order to avoid overtaxing the damaged power grid. “We need to survive this winter,” she said, predicting blackouts and that the situation would “get worse.”

That puts additional pressure on organizations supporting 7.7 million refugees across the continent — and those displaced within Ukraine’s borders, estimated at 6.2 million as of late September — they must adjust operations and funding expectations in line with new realities.

“The war shows no signs of abating. Protracted internal displacement generates growing needs and vulnerabilities,” said Anh Nguyen, chief of mission at the Ukraine office of the International Organization for Migration, who added that humanitarian organizations must increase commitment and support in line with growing needs.  

Helena Krajewska, spokesperson for Warsaw-based NGO Polish Humanitarian Action, or PAH, said the organization is creating eight centers to provide psychosocial and additional support in Kyivska and Dnipro oblasts, but aid work in Ukraine has been complicated by the new Russian offensive’s targeting of the country’s power grid.

“In the same moment we are rebuilding and repairing houses that were affected by the shelling, as well as providing — with UNHCR and [Stichting Vluchteling] — module houses to IDPs in Kyivska oblast,” she said. “If more power plants, water sources and other critical infrastructure building will be targeted, we are going to face an immense challenge … we need to prepare for a very difficult winter.”

The fresh wave of attacks has damaged multiple critical infrastructure facilities and caused power outages across regions, Ukrainian officials told the Washington Post. “The attacks on the energy infrastructure and power grids pose a bigger challenge to civilians preparing for winter months, especially in Mikolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro,” said Krajewska. “It is also a new challenge for humanitarian workers who are struggling to adjust to quickly changing conditions. Power cuts mean it is also much more difficult to procure, plan and deliver aid.”

“We’ve managed to help raise funds of over 10 billion euros towards humanitarian work in Ukraine,” said Victoria Umanska, co-founder of Polish NGO Servive, also known as Team Ukraine Love, which set up five refugee shelters for thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Poland. “The bigger NGOs were very helpful in fundraising on a global scale. But it’s the small local aid agencies that have been very efficient on the ground level.”

Umanska opined that the conflict and aggression of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine never stopped and has been ongoing — but said that funding has slowed in recent months. “The media coverage has been up and down and that’s why initially we were able to raise half a million dollars in a matter of few months but now, we are finding it hard to do so because people are tired of hearing about the same crisis,” said Umanska, adding that NGOs and foundations have moved on to other crises like soaring gas prices in Europe.

With private donations slowing down in the past months, aid agencies have been working along multiple channels to raise funds — and there is still money to be had. PAH has applied to institutional donors such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, CARE, and more. Since the Feb. 24 invasion, the organization has also received 182 million Polish złoty ($38.6 million) in funding for projects in Poland and Ukraine from private and corporate donors. “We have the support for now,” said Krajewska, “But what is very important is to make sure that it would be available also in the years to come, when Ukraine starts rebuilding after the conflict ends.”