Years after the events described here, some continue to cope with trauma, fear, and the lasting consequences of what they experienced during occupation.Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) includes rape, threats of rape, sexual torture, forced nudity, sexual humiliation, and other forms of sexual violence committed in situations of armed conflict, occupation, or detention. As emphasized in the UN Secretary General’s Annual Report on CRSV, in 2025 “LGBTQ+ persons were at acute risk of sexual violence, in particular in detention settings.”“Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence are not a homogenous group. Their experiences, needs and circumstances differ, requiring survivor-centred approaches that respond to each individual with dignity and care. The diverse manifestations of sexual violence demand tailored responses, while survivor networks continue to play a vital role in advocating for the rights and needs of those affected,” said António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, in his 2025 Report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.The stories in this article illustrate how CRSV can intersect with discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), creating additional barriers to safety, recovery and justice. Together with the Ukrainian human rights organization Projector, the United Nations is sharing documented testimonies from survivors in territories of Ukraine temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Names and identifying details have been changed to protect survivors' privacy and safety.While CRSV remains significantly underreported worldwide, the United Nations has documented cases affecting women, men, girls, boys and people of diverse genders in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, including in detention settings and areas under occupation.“What we see in these testimonies is not a series of isolated incidents. Across different survivors and periods of occupation, similar patterns emerge: unlawful detention, torture, sexual violence, humiliation, and attempts to break people through fear. These stories remind us that conflict-related sexual violence can be used not only against individuals, but also to intimidate communities and assert control over civilian populations,” said Vitalii Matvieiev, Head of Projector.Human rights organizations and UN monitoring mechanisms have documented that LGBTQI+ persons may face heightened risks during armed conflict and occupation. The experiences of Olena and Andrii show how CRSV can intersect with discrimination based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), creating additional barriers to safety, recovery, justice and support. “I’ll show you that men are much better.”Two months before the liberation of Kherson, Olena (name changed), a young lesbian woman, was detained by Russian soldiers while working as a shop assistant. During a search of her home, soldiers found a Ukrainian flag and an LGBTQ+ rainbow flag. After learning that she was a lesbian, they dragged her away, detained her and demanded information about other LGBTQ+ people in the city.When Olena refused to cooperate, she was beaten and subjected to threats of sexual violence. According to her testimony, one soldier told her, “I’ll show you that men are much better,” while she was restrained and unable to move. She was later pressured repeatedly to provide information about LGBTQ+ people in occupied Kherson.The abuse continued during subsequent detentions. Olena was forced to witness acts of humiliation against other detainees and survived what she described as a mass execution in which most detainees were killed. To this day, she has not reported the crimes to law enforcement authorities.“If we meet again, I’ll rape you.”In May 2022, Andrii (name changed), a member of the LGBTQI+ community living in occupied Kherson, was stopped by three Russian servicemen while returning home from work. What began as routine questioning quickly escalated into sexualized violence.According to his testimony, one soldier forcibly touched him under his clothing without consent and threatened him with rape, saying: “If we meet again, I’ll rape you.”Although the encounter lasted only minutes, its impact endured. As a civilian living under occupation, Andrii had no realistic way to resist or seek protection, highlighting the fear and vulnerability many LGBTQI+ people faced in occupied territories.When Violence and Discrimination IntersectThe experiences of Olena and Andrii illustrate how conflict-related sexual violence may intersect with discrimination against LGBTQI+ persons. Beyond violence and coercion associated with occupation, survivors may also face acts and threats linked to their actual or perceived sexual orientation, deepening trauma and reinforcing stigma.For many survivors, the consequences extend far beyond the violations themselves. Physical injuries, psychological trauma, fear, and social stigma can persist for years, while concerns about retaliation, disclosure, or reliving traumatic experiences may prevent survivors from seeking support or pursuing justice.Putting Survivors at the Centre“Recovery looks different for every survivor. Some people are ready to speak, while others need time. Our role is not to pressure survivors, but to create conditions where they feel safe, heard, and supported. Access to psychological care, medical services, legal assistance, and social support can be just as important as the pursuit of justice itself,” said Vitalii Matvieiev, Head of Projector.CRSV remains one of the most devastating and underreported consequences of armed conflict, often leaving long-lasting physical, psychological, social, and economic impacts on survivors, their families, and communities. Addressing these crimes requires more than accountability alone. Survivors need access to comprehensive support services, including healthcare, psychosocial assistance, legal aid, and protection. At the same time, strengthening the capacity of institutions and professionals to identify, document, investigate, and respond to CRSV is essential to ensuring that survivors are treated with dignity and that their rights are upheld. Making sure this is true for all survivors does not happen without intentional and consistent efforts on all sides. “Several residents of a shelter for LGBTQI+ internally displaced people told us they had survived conflict-related sexual violence under occupation but did not report the crimes. They feared that speaking out would expose them to further violence, discrimination and stigma. No survivor should have to choose between seeking justice and protecting their own safety. We must ensure that services are safe, inclusive and accessible to everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics,” said Analee Pepper, Senior Women’s Protection Advisor on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.As Ukraine continues to pursue justice and recovery, survivor-centred approaches must remain at the heart of these efforts. Survivors of CRSV are not a homogenous group, and their experiences, risks and recovery needs can differ significantly. In Ukraine, response and prevention efforts have increasingly adapted to the realities faced by different groups of survivors, including men who have experienced CRSV in detention. The same principle must apply to LGBTQI+ survivors, who may face additional barriers to reporting violations, accessing services and seeking justice due to stigma, discrimination or fear of further harm.At a time when the rights of LGBTQI+ people are being challenged in many parts of the world, it is essential to reaffirm that international human rights standards guarantee equal protection and access to justice for all survivors. Ensuring that survivor-centred approaches truly centre all survivors requires dedicated effort, sustained investment and strong national ownership. Building systems that are inclusive, accessible and responsive to diverse needs is not only critical for recovery and accountability in Ukraine, but also for ensuring that no survivor of conflict-related sexual violence is left behind.***Vitalii Matvieiev is a Ukrainian attorney, media lawyer and co-founder and CEO of Projector  --a Ukrainian civil society organization that brings together lawyers, human rights defenders and media professionals to support access to justice, document human rights violations and advocate for survivors' rights. Projector is dedicated to protecting the rights of vulnerable communities, including LGBTQ+ individuals, and advocating for democratic legal reforms. In addition to his role in Projector, Vitalii is a Representative to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on matters related to the investigation and prosecution of gender-based crimes.Analee Pepper is the Senior Women’s Protection Advisor to the UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine – a role mandated under UN Security Council Resolution 2467 (2019) in order to advise UN senior leadership on the implementaiton of the operational provisions of UN security council resolutions related to conflict-related sexual violence. In this capacity, Analee leads and coordinates the UN joint portfolio on CRSV prevention and response in Ukraine and liaises closely with the Office of the Special Representative to the UN Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Vitalii Zakharchuk, UN Ukraine RCO Senior National PSEA Coordinator, spoke about how isolation turns people into targets for abusers, why transparency from organizations like Doctors Without Borders (MSF) should be read as a sign of strength, and what needs to change so survivors can speak up without fear."If the system doesn't see a person, it can't protect them." Isolation as a gateway to abuseSexual exploitation and abuse, he explains, is never about sexuality or desire. In 100% of cases, it is about the abuse of power. A humanitarian crisis already creates a huge gap on its own, between those who hold resources and access to help, and those who have lost everything. Vulnerability is not an inborn trait; it is created by the conditions that society, or a crisis, push people into.To explain the inner block that keeps people silent, he points to an everyday example familiar across Ukraine: the way English used to be taught, with the focus on mistakes and judgement rather than practice. That same shame, moved into the realm of safety and rights, becomes lethal. Fear of stigma or of being rejected by one's own community, for instance, the fear of a person from the LGBTQ+ community that their relatives will turn their backs on them — is, in Vitalii's words, "the best fuel there is for an abuser."Add intersectionality on top, and risk factors do not simply add up; they multiply. An internally displaced person living with a disability who is also part of the LGBTQ+ community faces isolation that climbs steeply. If that person encounters hints of exploitation in exchange for basic help, where do they turn? Are hotlines set up for people who cannot hear or see? That is why, he insists, SEA prevention without real inclusion is a fiction.Prevention built into design, not bolted onOne of the sector's biggest problems is the "silo approach," where each actor, housing, education, and protection digs its own closed tunnel. SEA prevention, he warns, cannot be added to a development programme at the last minute to satisfy a donor; it has to be built into the architecture of a project from the design stage.Wherever resources and new positions of power appear, so do new dependencies. If microbusiness grants or retraining programmes have unclear selection criteria, a single grant manager can end up with sole power over who receives help, creating a direct risk of coercion. If an institutional building is designed without inclusion specialists, the result can be toilets or showers that are not adapted for wheelchair users, forcing a person with a disability to depend on someone else for basic needs. Any forced, unregulated dependency in a crisis, this person says, is a potential opening for abuse.The goal is to make SEA risk assessment as routine as a financial audit, shifting from a "protection in a crisis" mindset to a "safe development" one, where every person knows that a job or social assistance is their right, not a favour owed to whoever manages it. The MSF case: transparency as strengthWhen Doctors without borders (MSF) announced that it had investigated cases of sexual exploitation and abuse within its own organization and dismissed 18 staff, many in the sector read it as a blow to its reputation. But it is actually the opposite.  "When you open the annual report of a big agency that says it works with millions of people in a brutal crisis, and you see the number 'zero violations,' that's not a reason to celebrate. It's a reason to worry."Across a million beneficiaries in extreme conditions, an absolute zero is statistically impossible: either a perfect world has been built, or walls of silence have been built instead, walls that keep survivors' voices from reaching the top. What MSF did, this person argues, was not a reputational crisis but a sign of institutional maturity, proof that its reporting mechanisms genuinely work, and that zero tolerance does not mean the absence of incidents, it means an uncompromising response when they occur. Burnout and the normalization of violenceThe hardest day-to-day challenge in Ukraine is the burnout of the whole system after years of war. Under constant shelling, the mind adapts and attention narrows to survival, which pushes people into "firefighting mode": drop off aid and move on, because there is already a new crisis in the next region.Responding to cases matters, but by the time an investigation opens, the harm is already done. Prevention, by contrast, is the long game, systemic, often invisible, and slow, and it means building a culture in which every humanitarian worker understands that the aid they distribute is not theirs to hand out from a position of power, but a resource people are entitled to. Toward communities, the message has to be repeated constantly: all aid is free, and no one has the right to demand anything in return, no services, no hints at intimacy, no special treatment, not even silence about problems.A national network, not isolated effortsThis work is now moving to a new systemic level. The PSEA Network has rolled out across Ukraine at scale and already counts more than 200 members. It is not just a coordination platform on paper but a locally rooted ecosystem, co-chaired by the Ukrainian Foundation for Public Health together with World Vision International, combining international resources with the expertise of professionals who know each community from the inside.When more than 200 organizations line up behind the same safety standards, Vitalii says; the result is "a dense net of prevention, response, and support", not scattered attempts at protection, but a proper national accountability system.Effective protection from sexual exploitation and abuse requires real inclusion for people with disabilities, minorities and LGBTQ+ communities; development programmes designed from the outset with these risks in mind; institutions willing to investigate and be transparent about wrongdoing, as MSF did; and an approach centred, without compromise, on survivors rather than on any organization's reputation or funding. The question that needs to changeFor the system to work at full strength, this person argues, there has to be a fundamental turn toward a victim-centred approach as an iron rule: the interests, safety and confidentiality of the person who has been exploited come before any organization's interests. No one should have to fight to be believed."In our society, there's still this question that comes up far too often: 'Why did he/she/they stay silent all that time?' Our shared job is to make sure we forget that question for good. Instead, those of us working as PSEA focal points should be asking ourselves every day: what do we have to change in the system today, so that people can speak up openly and honestly, without the slightest fear?”What needs to happen nowUkraine's PSEA Network remains open to humanitarian and development organizations, donors and community groups willing to put this principle into practice. Build SEA risk assessments into every project from the design stage, not as an afterthought; make reporting channels genuinely accessible to people with disabilities and minority communities; and treat openness about wrongdoing, not silence, as the real measure of an organization's integrity.The choice is not between protecting an institution's reputation and protecting survivors. It is between a system that looks safe on paper and one that actually is. Every organization working in Ukraine has a role in building the second kind.

For many micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine, recovery begins with practical decisions made every day: keeping production running, retaining staff, reaching customers, adapting to disrupted supply chains, improving a product, entering a new market or testing a new business model.Taken together, these decisions tell a broader story of resilience. According to the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine, MSMEs account for more than 80 per cent of jobs and two-thirds of the country’s GDP. Their ability to adapt, invest and grow is therefore essential not only to individual livelihoods but also to Ukraine’s economic recovery and long-term competitiveness.The sector's structural weight is set out in Ukraine’s own SME Development Strategy until 2027, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in August 2024. The Strategy identifies MSMEs as accounting for 99.98 per cent of all business entities in the country and places their recovery, including the green transition, digital transformation and European market integration, at the heart of Ukraine’s economic future. On International MSME Day, marked on 27 June, UNIDO highlights the role of Ukrainian entrepreneurs and enterprises not only as beneficiaries of recovery, but also as active partners in green industrial transformation.Globally, MSMEs are essential to inclusive growth, innovation, job creation and economic resilience. Yet many face persistent barriers, including limited access to finance, difficulties integrating into regional and global value chains, limited capacity to adopt innovation and technology and high vulnerability to external shocks. In Ukraine, these constraints have become even more acute as the war continues to affect production, logistics, energy supply, labour markets and access to investment.UNIDO’s work in Ukraine brings together its global expertise in inclusive and sustainable industrial development with the country’s pressing recovery needs. The UNIDO green industrial recovery programme for Ukraine (2024-2028), co-developed with the Government of Ukraine, aims to support communities, strengthen businesses, attract investment and foster a green economy.For MSMEs, this support takes different forms, depending on their stage of development and specific needs. Some need entrepreneurship training, mentoring or help developing a business plan. Others need to improve compliance with international standards, access investment or find pathways into export markets. A dedicated UNIDO programme, funded by Austria and Bulgaria, is currently helping 300 enterprises in the agri-food, textile and wood-processing sectors adopt practical digital tools from production planning and artificial intelligence applications to traceability and quality management. What they share is a need not for one-off assistance, but for connected support – skills, finance, standards, technology, networks and market access, embedded in stronger local ecosystems. Innovation is one area where Ukrainian MSMEs and startups are already contributing to green industrial recovery. Through the GEF-funded GCIP Ukraine 2.0, implemented by Greencubator NGO as part of the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme, UNIDO supports growth-stage clean technology startups through advanced acceleration, mentorship and networking. The programme helps entrepreneurs refine, validate and scale solutions that respond to both business needs and environmental challenges.These include market-oriented solutions in low-carbon construction, circular materials, sustainable packaging and cleaner logistics. Geodesic.Life, for example, produces prefabricated eco-domes from circular, bio-based materials, while PowerDrive provides electric scooters for delivery services, helping businesses reduce fuel consumption, lower operating costs and cut emissions from urban last-mile delivery. Such examples show that green recovery is not only about reducing environmental impact. It is also about creating products, services and business models that can compete in future markets. For other MSMEs, competitiveness begins with quality, standards and market access. Through the Swiss-funded Global Quality and Standards Programme (GQSP) Ukraine, UNIDO supports Ukrainian berry and nut producers in strengthening compliance with international requirements, improving labelling practices, preparing for export and engaging with global buyers. Participation in major international trade fairs, including Anuga, Fruit Logistica, Gulfood and BIOFACH, has helped companies translate technical knowledge into tangible market exposure.The experiences of Nuts’N’Garden and Food for Thoughts illustrate how targeted capacity development, individual consultations and trade fair engagement can help local producers strengthen product positioning, align with export market requirements and move towards higher-value production and global value chains. For MSMEs, such support can shorten the distance between local production and international markets. UNIDO’s work with MSMEs in Ukraine also extends to regional and local recovery ecosystems, including through cooperation with regional development agencies. Through the Germany-funded project “Green industrial recovery through municipality-based development in Ukraine”, UNIDO supports collaboration among Ukrainian municipalities, MSMEs, regional development actors, German partners and other stakeholders. The project combines investment matchmaking, knowledge exchange and exposure to environmental technologies, helping link local recovery with MSME competitiveness, industrial innovation and integration into European value chains.This local dimension is important because many MSMEs are deeply rooted in their communities. Their growth depends not only on individual business capacity, but also on infrastructure, local partnerships, investment opportunities and the ability of municipalities to create favourable conditions for sustainable economic development.Technology transfer is another important part of this wider picture. Through the Japan-funded project “Green industrial recovery project for Ukraine through technology transfer from and co-creation of new businesses with Japan’s private industries”, UNIDO supports the testing and introduction of advanced technologies and new business models in Ukraine. The initiative covers multiple areas, including agribusiness, circular economy, ICT, energy, MSME productivity enhancement, assistive equipment and telemedicine. The project is expected to help more than 30,000 people in Ukraine gain new skills and enable 47 advanced technologies to be tested, introduced or adopted across priority sectors. Of the 47 technologies selected by UNIDO from Japan, 46 were proposed by Japanese SMEs and startups, underlining how smaller enterprises can contribute to recovery not only as beneficiaries, but also as providers of innovation, practical business models and international partnerships.Entrepreneurship also plays an important role in social reintegration, economic inclusion and community resilience. Through initiatives implemented with the support of the Governments of Austria and Bulgaria, UNIDO has supported women, youth, aspiring entrepreneurs, veterans and their family members with training, mentoring, business development support and access to expert consultations. These efforts help strengthen businesses, improve livelihoods and contribute to local economic recovery. This approach was also reflected at the recent event “Entrepreneurship Development for Green Industrial Recovery in Ukraine: Lviv,” where a dedicated veterans’ business fair showcased enterprises founded by veterans and their family members, demonstrating how entrepreneurship can support job creation and inclusive economic development. The timing of this year’s International MSME Day is particularly relevant. Held in Gdańsk on 25-26 June 2026, just one day before the observance, the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 brought together governments, international and financial institutions, businesses, local authorities and civil society to mobilize support for Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery. For MSMEs, this agenda is directly relevant: recovery depends on access to finance, investment-ready projects, stronger local economies, green reconstruction, innovation and alignment with European markets.This is where UNIDO’s work with MSMEs connects to the wider recovery agenda. Green industrial recovery is not only about rebuilding infrastructure or replacing what was lost. It is also about helping enterprises modernize production, improve resource efficiency, adopt new technologies, meet higher standards and reach new markets.Across cleantech innovation, quality infrastructure, export readiness, municipal partnerships, technology transfer and entrepreneurship support, one message is clear: MSMEs are where much of Ukraine’s green industrial recovery becomes practical.They are the companies testing new ideas, improving products, adopting standards, creating jobs, connecting communities to markets and helping rebuild confidence in the future. Their needs are immediate, but their contribution is strategic.On International MSME Day, UNIDO reaffirms its commitment to supporting Ukrainian entrepreneurs and enterprises as partners in recovery – from local business ideas to stronger value chains, from quality and standards to global markets, from technology transfer and investment partnerships to resilience today and a greener industrial future for Ukraine.

“I checked whether there was an air raid alert”, she says. If there was no alert, Mariia would open her laptop and wait for the link to her online lesson. If the air raid siren sounded, classes would be cancelled and the learning materials sent to students for self-study. That has been the reality for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children throughout the war.Mariia and Kyrylo attend Kalynivka Lyceum in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region. They have spent nearly half of their school years not at desks in classrooms, but in front of laptop and phone screens. First came the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed learning online. Just as students were beginning to return to school, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. For the first weeks after the invasion, education effectively came to a standstill. “We were completely cut off from our friends, our teachers, from everything,” recalls Mariia. “For two or three weeks, there were no classes at all”.Schools gradually resumed online teaching, but wartime distance learning proved very different from pandemic-era remote education. On an average day, Mariia attended six or seven online lessons. The timetable changed constantly because of power outages and air raid alerts.For Kyrylo, the war brought another challenge: his family evacuated to the Czech Republic. There, he attended a local school but remained enrolled at his home lyceum in Ukraine. “I had homework and tests from both the Czech and the Ukrainian schools. It was challenging, to say the least,” Kyrylo says. Both students acknowledge that online learning has its advantages. It allows one to study from anywhere in the world, quickly find information online, and use AI to help explain difficult topics.Yet this convenience comes with significant drawbacks. Many students have grown accustomed to an environment where it is easier to avoid active participation, rely on internet searches, and use AI tools to complete assignments. After several years of learning this way, some worry that returning to the classroom may expose gaps in their knowledge and affect their academic performance.Even so, Kyrylo has no doubts about what he prefers. “In-person learning is much better. When I studied in the classroom, I learned far more than I do online”.  The online format has changed more than just the quality of education: it has altered childhood itself. Instead of running through school corridors, students spend breaks on their phones. Instead of gathering with friends, they connect through video calls.“I stay in touch with my friends as best I can,” says Mariia, “but it’s not the same kind of close interaction”.
Before the war, Kyrylo played football. After the invasion, his club shut down and training stopped. “That’s how I ended up giving up football”, he says.The impact extends beyond students. Before the war, children went to school while parents worked or managed other responsibilities. Today, many adults – particularly mothers –  stay at home to supervise their children’s learning and adapt to constantly changing schedules.Despite the challenges, both teenagers continue to look ahead. Mariia dreams of becoming a journalist: “I want to travel around different parts of Ukraine, listen to people’s stories, and interview them”.Kyrylo plans to attend college and study electrical engineering and electromechanics, following in his father’s footsteps.In May this year, a new radiation-protection shelter was completed at their lyceum by UNOPS with funding from Denmark. The shelter will allow students to return to full-time, in-person learning this September. Now, if an air raid alert sounds during lessons, students and staff will move to a safe underground space and continue learning without interruption.“It will be easier for us because we’ll be able to see our classmates and teachers in person instead of just looking at a screen”, says Mariia.The shelter was completed just before summer. Among the first events it hosted were end-of-year celebrations and graduation ceremonies. For the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion, graduation festivities were held in their traditional format, with dancing, food, and face-to-face interactions. For a whole generation of Ukrainian students whose childhood has unfolded between a pandemic and a war, returning to the classroom means more than returning to school. It means returning to friends, shared memories, and, ultimately, to a sense of normal life.About the projectThe construction of school shelters is only one component of the “ Restoring communities in Mykolaiv” project implemented by UNOPS with funding from the Government of Denmark. Following a needs and damage assessment conducted in close cooperation with local authorities in the city of Mykolaiv and the surrounding region, the project is working to address urgent needs while creating conditions for the long-term recovery of local communities. Its activities include repairing apartment buildings and their surrounding areas, reconstructing and building underground school shelters, and stabilizing the historic Arkas Lyceum building in downtown Mykolaiv, a renowned educational institution and cultural heritage site that was damaged by a missile strike.