These grants enabled them to not only set up their own businesses or undergo vocational training but also create employment for other people who were forced to flee their homes.For many, the name Mariupol evokes haunting images of destruction and admiration for the resilience of its people. For Tetiana, it is the home she was forced to leave when the full-scale Russian invasion turned her life upside down. Now, nearly three years later and a thousand kilometers away, Tetiana is bringing a piece of Mariupol’s heart to western Ukraine.After the start of the full-scale war, Tetiana fled Mariupol with her young daughter, first to Dnipro and eventually to Ivano-Frankivsk. She left behind her older parents, her career as the head of a bank branch, and the comforting familiarity of her life in the once vibrant city by the Azov Sea. But Tetiana carried something with her—the spirit of the city which now lives on in “Dusha” (The Soul), a cozy café she opened in Ivano-Frankivsk with grant support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The café’s walls are adorned with symbols of Mariupol, and its motto, “A part of the soul in every coffee cup,” invites guests to experience the warmth and hospitality of her hometown. The café quickly became a success, and Tetiana’s vision grew. She opened a second location and hired two employees, including another displaced woman from the Odesa region. Driven to improve her craft, Tetiana is currently taking a culinary course in France, ensuring that her cafés continue to thrive. She credits her business not only with providing financial stability, but also with helping her to find her place in her new community.“We offer coffee, desserts, and sandwiches, but also heartfelt conversations to our customers, and this job also helped me to feel a part of my new community. I like to put my soul into everything I do, and people feel it,” Tetiana said.From displacement to entrepreneurshipIn 2022-2023, UNHCR provided 34 business grants and 22 vocational training grants to support internally displaced people in Ukraine to rebuild their lives, achieve financial stability and become self-reliant. The programme was implemented in four western regions of Ukraine, including Zakarpattia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne. Of the 56 people who received this assistance, as of end 2024, 38 of them have businesses that remain operational, a survey indicates. Moreover, these ventures have helped to create employment for an additional 28 people, many of whom were also displaced.One of them is the beauty studio “Petite Rêve” (Little dream) that was opened by Olha who fled to Ivano-Frankivsk from the occupied city of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia region. She currently employs seven women, including some who were internally displaced like herself. With the grant from UNHCR, Olha expanded her entrepreneurial initiative from a modest manicure service to a full-scale beauty studio offering hairdressing, brow artistry, and more. She also gives back to her community by training local and displaced women in manicure techniques, free of charge. “The UNHCR business grant gave me a boost. Of course, I had to invest my own money, but with the grant money, I covered about 70 per cent of what I needed to start my own business. I probably would not have dared to do something so big, so large-scale, if it was not for this grant. Now, I am also able to teach a basic course to other women to help them master their skills. I invest as much as I can, and I really want them to succeed,” Olha shared.Helping people return and remainFor another business grant recipient, Olena, the journey to her own thriving business took her from fleeing Zaporizhzhia, staying six months in Italy as a refugee, returning to Ukraine and moving to Ivano-Frankivsk. Having faced so many challenges, she decided to finally go after her dream – to set up a sports club called “Pride”. UNHCR’s grant enabled Olena to expand her business and now the club offers classes in Muay Thai boxing, gymnastics, karate, pilates, and stretching for children and adults.“I am a choreographer myself, and my husband is a Muay Thai boxing coach. In Italy, we realized that we will not be able to find a job in our sectors, and I felt that this life is not for me. We decided to return and start building something by ourselves. Our club is not just about fitness, but also about creating connections between displaced and local people,” Olena noted.  

Fishchuk runs a small bakery and café in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine, where she employs women who have been displaced by Russia’s full-scale invasion. But ongoing attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure have made it increasingly challenging for Fishchuk to keep her business operational and her employees paid.“Blackouts also create moral pressure,” she said, describing how her generators are not capable of running the bakery’s ovens during extended power outages—and how she therefore has difficulty paying her staff, who rely on their work for their basic living needs.“Every winter is a matter of survival for the business and the employees you hire,” said Fishchuk, who also heads the Road of Taste of Prykarpattia, a network of local restaurants and food producers. Since the full-scale war began in 2022, Russian forces have repeatedly attacked Ukrainian power plants and other energy infrastructure.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 29 November 2024 that there had been at least 1,120 attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure since 2022. This year, nine waves of attacks in just more than five months—from 22 March to 31 August 2024—damaged or destroyed power generation, transmission, and distribution facilities, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office.The attacks on power infrastructure impact all Ukrainians, especially as the winter arrives—when cold weather and shorter daylight hours mean that demand for electricity increases by 20 to 25 per cent. These attacks have specific consequences for women and girls.“Power outages affect the ability of women to work and support their families,” said Liliia Kislitsyna, President of SMARTA, a women’s rights group based in the Donetsk Region, on the frontlines of the war.Kislitsyna, who also works as a coordinator for Coalition1325, a network of organizations in Donetsk seeking to protect women in the war, also noted that many displaced women work for small businesses that are forced to close or restrict their working hours due to blackouts. “The further one goes into remote towns and villages, the worse the electricity situation becomes,” she said. “As a result, women often work fewer hours and do not receive full wages.”Even when businesses have generators, the costs of running them can be prohibitive, as noted by Sofia Burtak, president of the Rural Women Business Network, an organization that provides aid to women farmers and women-owned agricultural businesses. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, the network has also supported internally displaced women and helped women-owned businesses develop strategies for dealing with power cuts.“Blackouts significantly increase production costs,” she said. “The cost of one kilowatt of energy produced by a generator is 20 Ukrainian hryvnia higher than the cost of one kilowatt from the central grid. Even with an alternative power source, the impact on costs, pricing, and production is substantial.” In a 2024 survey of 800 women-owned rural businesses, Burtak said that the Rural Women Business Network found only 35 per cent of respondents said they had backup power sources capable of maintaining their operations.“As a result, the risk of power loss translates into an income loss for the entire family,” she said.UN Women works closely with women's rights organizations in Ukraine, including SMARTA and the Rural Women Business Network. With the support of the United Nations Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund, UN Women has been able to provide over USD 20 million in grants to 54 women-led organizations since the start of the large-scale invasion by the Russian Federation in February 2022, such as institutional grants to organizations in need, including for items such as generators.The power cuts are also felt by women who work within the home. Electricity cuts have a major impact on food preparation and storage, and women—who already shoulder disproportionate care burdens—are forced to spend more time on domestic tasks and are therefore less likely to participate in the labour force.A lack of electricity “affects basic needs, such as cooking food and going in and out of the apartment, especially when you live on the upper floors of a high-rise building. Having to climb up and down several times a day is a real challenge,” said Nataliia Chermoshentseva, a gender expert and activist who coordinates volunteer efforts with the Dignity organization, which works to help communities formerly occupied by Russian forces. She described how many tasks disproportionately done by women—such as cooking, purchasing supplies and groceries, and cleaning—are dependent on electricity. Schools operate fully remote due to the war in many places around the country, and children cannot attend classes without power and internet.“Ukraine ranks among the top countries in digitalization, and we have many electronic services, including those related to social welfare, work, and education,” Chermoshentseva said. “Many of our survival strategies — such as receiving alarm notifications through mobile apps, deciding when to move to shelters, monitoring the situation, etcetera — depend directly on internet access.”“When we talk about the various impacts of the war, there is a specific gender group— women—who are affected much more,” Chermoshentseva said. “Power outages are not a gender-neutral problem.”
 

Every day brings fear and uncertainty to the people of Ukraine, especially those residing in cities, where attacks have intensified. For the residents of Sumy, in north-eastern Ukraine, this reality is all too familiar. The region continues to endure frequent strikes, causing significant destruction, loss of life and injuries. In this context, humanitarian needs have exacerbated, leaving communities in urgent need of protection and essential services.November 17 was an uneventful Sunday, until a strike hit a densely populated residential area in the city. People were killed and injured, also many homes suffered extensive damage, and forced families to leave their apartments.
"The strike came so fast, with such a roar and bang," says Lyudmyla, a retired woman living alone in an apartment in one of the affected residential buildings. "I jumped out of my bed. I grabbed my documents and ran to a safe place. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life." 
The explosion severely damaged Lyudmyla’s apartment.  The blast wave bent her front door, and her balcony was partially destroyed.  
"I felt cold air coming into my apartment through the damaged door. I’m just grateful the balcony glass didn’t shatter on me," she says. Lyudmyla believes her cat saved her life. "He went out to the balcony just before the blast, and the open door might have absorbed some of the impact."Living alone on a small pension allowance, she felt overwhelmed by the challenge of repairing her damaged apartment and staying warm as winter temperatures began to drop—all while having to buy medicines, hygiene items and food.
  Immediate humanitarian response after the attack
In the wake of the attack, humanitarian organizations quickly mobilized to support the affected people. They provided food and water, immediate temporary window insulation, and psychological and legal assistance, helping residents like Lyudmyla navigate the immediate aftermath.

  
To help those affected cope with the hardships following the attack, several humanitarian organizations began registering the affected people for multi-purpose cash assistance (MPCA). The humanitarian response was meant to support people who had lost their apartments and meet their basic needs such as food, medicines, clothing and other necessities. Eligible families received financial support amounting to 10,800 UAH (around US$250) per person over three months to cover essential expenses during this challenging time. 
When Lyudmyla learned about the programme from her neighbours, she instantly reached out to the humanitarians. She was among the first to apply for emergency assistance. Aid workers registered vulnerable people like Lyudmyla, including people with disabilities, older people and others facing severe hardship. In Sumy City, three NGOs registered over 1000 applications after the attack that damaged Lyudmyla’s apartment.
“Our specialists tirelessly provided consultations on emergency aid,” says Olha Koreneva, Regional Program Coordinator at Right to Protection NGO. “Many were too shaken to seek help right away, but we made sure support was available when they were ready.”
Millions of war-affected people have received multi-purpose cash support in Ukraine since 2022Across Ukraine, over 100 humanitarian organizations are working to provide war-affected people with multi-purpose cash assistance. Since the war escalated in 2022, over 10.5 million people have been supported with a total amount of US$2.1 billion. Between 2022 and 2024, Ukraine's humanitarian response has heavily relied on MPCA to support those affected by the war. At the onset of the escalation of the war, multi-purpose cash was the most preferred and efficient modality of aid. In 2022 alone, nearly 6 million people were supported with MPSA assistance and over 4 million people in 2023, which constituted almost 40 per cent of the total humanitarian assistance at the time. An inter-agency Cash Working Group (CWG) in Ukraine has been instrumental in coordinating these efforts and developing guidelines and standard operating procedures to harmonize MPCA delivery across various regions, avoiding duplication and ensuring that the most vulnerable people receive aid. Today, MPCA remains a vital component of Ukraine's humanitarian response, providing flexible support that enables recipients to address their diverse needs amid the crisis.Meanwhile, Lyudmyla is preparing to return home: “During the first several days, I couldn’t bring myself to go back—it was too painful to face the destruction. I stayed with friends,” Lyudmyla shares. “But the support I’ve received from aid organizations and friends gives me hope to restore a sense of normalcy and eventually return home.” 
 

Explore our UN Ukraine Recovery Dashboard!This interactive dashboard provides detailed insights into our recovery programmes and funding. 

The UN provides crucial support to people, communities, and institutions to strengthen systems and foster resilience, essential for the country's recovery from the devastation caused by the war. This includes focusing on critical areas such as infrastructure reconstruction, mine action, housing, livelihoods, energy, health, education, social protection, environmental sustainability, and economic growth.

Transparency and accountability are fundamental to our approach. We are dedicated to making data accessible to all stakeholders through this interactive tool. [powerbi:https://data.uninfo.org/Home/_UkraineUNCT]