Ukraine

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed or injured thousands of Ukrainian women and displaced millions of civilians, the majority of whom are women and children. Women and girls living in displacement shelters face heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence, especially during prolonged energy blackouts caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid. The risks are most acute in roughly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory now under Russian occupation, where reports of abuse, forced disappearance, and coercion are widespread, and where women and girls have virtually no independent oversight or access to protective services. The war has also upended women’s economic security: with many men conscripted, deployed, or killed, women have increasingly become sole breadwinners for their households, even as displacement, damaged infrastructure, and disrupted labor markets have sharply narrowed their access to stable income.

At the same time, women’s contributions are reshaping Ukraine’s wartime and civic landscape. More women are assuming dangerous frontline humanitarian roles even amid Russia’s increasing attacks on aid personnel. Despite being severely impacted by funding cuts, Ukrainian women and women-led organizations continue to sustain recovery and reconstruction efforts, provide social services, and maintain local and national governance structures. Nearly 100,000 women serve in Ukraine’s army, many have entered previously male-dominated sectors, and women started more than half of all new businesses in 2024. Building upon women’s Nobel-prize-winning efforts to document war crimes, including sexual violence, Ukraine became the first wartime country to provide interim reparations to survivors. Survivors of sexual violence successfully petitioned for Russian armed and security forces to added to the UN “List of Shame” for their perpetration of sexual violence.

Despite their wartime efforts, women remain underrepresented in peace negotiations and have faced harassment and bias when serving in leadership roles. As Ukraine looks toward future diplomatic engagement and long-term recovery, Ukrainian women will be key architects of the country’s future. Civil society leaders have prepared a 10-Point Compact for Just and Sustainable Peace, urging the full inclusion of women in negotiations and warning that any settlement that freezes occupation lines without security guarantees would endanger women’s safety and undermine Ukraine’s future.

Russian missile and drone attacks continue to intensify across Ukraine after July 2026 marked the deadliest month for civilians since the first few months of the war—and a 70 percent increase compared to July 2025. Aerial warfare—including AI-facilitated drones—is expanding the geographic reach of Russian attacks, including the targeting of residential areas and civilian infrastructure near the urban centers, far from the frontline. At the same time, short-range drone attacks on the civilians near the frontlines has reached its wartime high. For women and girls in Ukraine, these attacks heighten protection risks, disrupt access to healthcare, education, and livelihoods, and increase unpaid caregiving responsibilities.

After months of stalled negotiations, efforts to revive talks between Russia and Ukraine have resumed in September 2026, with US-envoys making their first visit to Kyiv since President Trump took office in January 2025. However, Russian attacks on Ukraine continue amid renewed diplomatic engagement, undermining potential efforts to reach a negotiated end to the conflict. Though women’s participation in Ukraine’s armed forces is expanding alongside their continued leadership in frontline response, local governance, and humanitarian aid distribution, they remain underrepresented in formal negotiations and high-level decisionmaking.

Russian attacks are disrupting Ukrainian children’s access to education as air-raid alerts force students into shelters, targeted strikes damage and destroy schools, and repeat displacement interrupts children’s ability to receive consistent classroom instruction. Wartime barriers to education have short and long term consequences with gendered-impacts; girls may face heightened mobility restrictions and risks of violence, while also bearing disproportionate caregiving burdens and greater barriers to resuming education after prolonged interruptions. At the same time, the war is exacerbating the risks of gender-based harms, as increased stress, trauma, and displacement are reportedly contributing to rising rates of domestic and intimate partner violence in some of the country’s hardest-hit regions.

Humanitarian operations in Ukraine continue to face mounting risks as Russian attacks on aid personnel have increased by more than 20 percent since 2025. At the same time, more women are assuming dangerous frontline humanitarian roles despite women-led organizations being severely impacted by funding cuts, exposing them to heightened security and financial risks while placing additional caregiving and response responsibilities on women-led organizations and volunteers.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians—including women and children—are missing or detained in Russian-controlled territory, with women increasingly leading efforts to locate relatives, including disabled family members. Persons with disabilities face heightened risks in detention due to inadequate access to medical care, assistive devices, and accommodations. The uncertainty surrounding enforced disappearances places significant emotional, financial, and caregiving burdens on women, who often become primary advocates for missing family members while supporting displaced households. Continued restrictions on independent monitoring and limited communication with detainees further impede accountability and access to justice, increasing the risk that abuses against civilians—including persons with disabilities—remain undocumented and unaddressed.

More women are joining Ukraine’s armed forces as the country faces military personnel shortages, with more than 75,000 women serving as of early 2026. This includes approximately 5,500 in combat roles—an increase of roughly 40 percent since before Russia’s full-scale invasion. This presents an opportunity to strengthen women’s participation across Ukraine’s security sector and ensure that women’s experiences and perspectives inform military policy, peacebuilding, and post-war security planning.

Renewed European efforts to use Russia’s roughly €210 billion in frozen sovereign assets to support Ukraine’s recovery create an opportunity to link accountability with gender-responsive reconstruction. Calls from European foreign ministers and 122 members of the European Parliament to resume work on the mechanism mark a broadened political coalition willing to press the accountability case forward, and could open space to earmark funds for survivor reparations for conflict-related sexual violence, women-led recovery initiatives, and services supporting women’s economic security and participation.