Ukraine
In Ukraine, we work to ensure that humanitarian, development and peacebuilding efforts respond to the needs of people living through the war – particularly women, young people, and displaced communities.
We have been working in Ukraine since 2015. We support emergency response, stabilisation, recovery and reconstruction, and invest in building the capacity of local organisations so they can develop effective, evidence-based solutions for peace and long-term stability.
Our peacebuilding interventions in Ukraine are trauma-informed and guided by careful, locally grounded analysis of peace and conflict dynamics. This helps us understand the concerns of different groups, including people who are often left out. These insights inform a range of programmes that respond to their most pressing challenges: from supporting displaced families and helping war veterans reintegrate into civilian life to strengthening gender equality and mental health services.
Our peacebuilding projects in Ukraine
Our current flagship initiative, the Context Sensitivity Hub (CS Hub), supports local and international humanitarian, development and peacebuilding organisations to design and deliver programmes that are context- and gender-sensitive. This includes applying ‘do no harm’ principles to avoid worsening tensions, ensuring aid reaches those most in need, bringing different groups closer together across divides, and supporting inclusive community participation in decision-making.
The CS Hub offers training, technical support and resources that combine internationally tested expertise with best practice from Ukraine to deliver solutions that work. This approach builds on International Alert’s research showing how greater consideration of local context and needs increases long-term programme impact. We deliver this work in close partnership with the Ukrainian Community of Dialogue Practitioners and the Association of United Territorial Communities.
What we have also worked on
We know that inclusive, lasting peace and stability require more than an end to fighting. It is about helping societies heal, rebuilding trust, and creating conditions where people can live in safety and dignity. That work must begin even before a war ends. This is why our peacebuilding efforts in Ukraine go well beyond crisis response.
- Supporting women’s recovery, agency, and resilience: Under a UN Women project, we have partnered with women-led civil society organisations to provide mental health support and training to women affected and/or displaced by the war – helping them process trauma, rebuild their livelihoods, and play an active role in their communities’ recovery.
- Reintegrating former combatants and displaced people: Based on our in-depth research and context analysis, we advise organisations working on reintegration – a critical but often neglected dimension of stabilisation, as poorly managed transitions back to civilian life can fuel new grievances.
- Strengthening demining through a peacebuilding lens: We provide demining practitioners with tailored training to help them work more safely and effectively, avoid unintended harm, and ensure clearance efforts reach those most in need.
- Connecting peacebuilders: We organised peace cafes – spaces to help peacebuilders learn from one another and coordinate more effectively.
- Building local capacity for the long term: We supported local civil society organisations to access flexible, adaptable and scalable funding for their work along with training and technical assistance – so that locally rooted efforts can endure long after international attention moves on.
Understanding the context in Ukraine
The current war in Ukraine has its roots in a prolonged period of political tension between Ukraine and Russia, shaped by deeper disagreements over Ukraine’s sovereignty, identity, and geopolitical orientation. This tension escalated in 2013-2014, when large-scale protests erupted in Kyiv over the country’s future direction. That ultimately led to a change of government, causing relations with Moscow to deteriorate rapidly. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula following a referendum widely disputed as illegitimate by Ukraine and much of the international community.
Shortly after, an armed conflict simultaneously broke out in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. It was driven by a combination of local social and economic grievances and the involvement of Russian-backed armed groups who exploited political instability in Kyiv to declare independence. Despite the Minsk agreements (a series of internationally brokered ceasefires), that conflict persisted for nearly eight years. On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale war on Ukraine – the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II – causing mass casualties, the displacement of millions within Ukraine, and the flight of millions more abroad.
Over four years into the full-scale war, Ukraine continues to face the pressures of prolonged exposure to violence, uncertainty, and large-scale displacement, while also navigating increasing recovery and reform demands. Massive shelling in the extreme cold weather has caused significant damage to infrastructure and left thousands of households in many cities, including the capital, without electricity, water, and heating. The protracted nature of the war is increasingly straining community trust and relationships and creating significant risks for social fragmentation. It is also deeply affecting the mental health and psychosocial well-being of individuals and communities.
Alongside these urgent humanitarian needs, there is a growing recognition that how assistance is delivered matters as much as what is delivered. In this context, it is critical that all interventions are designed through a trauma-informed lens, recognising its widespread impact and integrating principles of safety, dignity, and resilience. Equally important is meaningfully involving affected communities in the design and implementation of initiatives, so that responses reflect the realities, needs, and priorities of people they are intended to serve.
How to meet the needs of Ukrainian civil society
Ukrainian civil society built up a strong backbone in response to the unpredictable and dangerous context in Ukraine. But the destruction and displacement in the country have forced many local organisations to reorient their activities.
