Themes by tag: occupation

Valeriia Vershynina was born and raised in Donetsk. In 2014, when russia first attacked Ukraine and occupied her hometown, she and her family evacuated to Kyiv.

In the capital, Valeriia joined the Charitable Foundation “Stabilization Support Services”, which supports internally displaced persons. She worked in a group that developed legislation concerning IDPs. In 2024, Valeriia became the head of the foundation. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the foundation has restored 1,964 facilities damaged by the war and provided legal and social assistance to more than 216,000 people.

In 2025, “Stabilization Support Services” faced challenges due to the suspension of funding from American donors. However, the team managed to secure support and continue its work. The foundation’s current priority is to find partners to support people affected by russia’s aggression. For example, over two years the team has completed 350 light repairs of homes damaged during hostilities in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

Interviews with Valeriia Vershynina can be arranged online or offline in Kyiv by prior arrangement.

Background: The Charitable Foundation “Stabilization Support Services” is a Ukrainian charitable organisation that, since 2016, has been addressing the social consequences of war and providing comprehensive support to internally displaced persons. The foundation delivers humanitarian and legal assistance, repairs damaged housing, strengthens the social protection system and develops the network of IDP Councils established by the foundation in 2019–2020. The foundation operates nationwide, focusing on the recovery of affected communities and improving access to social services for the most vulnerable groups.

• casualties
• occupation
• reconstruction
• women
• Kyiv

An equestrian sports complex in the Kharkiv region survived occupation and was left without management: in 2022, the owner abandoned it on the eve of the region’s liberation from russian forces. Criminal proceedings were opened against the owner. The horses were cared for by stableman Oleksii Boliukh despite the absence of salary.

The complex was placed under arrest, which prevented volunteers from evacuating the horses to a safer location for several years. However, this year the situation due to ongoing shelling worsened, and the stableman’s house was destroyed by a russian strike. As a result, the animals were evacuated.

The operation was planned to be completed in four days but lasted ten due to constant shelling. Military personnel, the police evacuation unit “White Angels,” volunteers, and humanitarian organizations joined the rescue effort. Ultimately, the 19 horses were transported to the Kharkiv Hippodrome, where they are now under the care of the animal welfare organization “Animals 911 Ukraine.”

Interviews with the volunteer team are available both online and offline in Kharkiv by prior arrangement.

• animals
• occupation
• volunteers
• Kharkiv
• evacuation

On February 24, commemorative events will take place in the city of Bucha in the Kyiv region to honor the memory of civilians and defenders of Ukraine who were killed.

The program will include:
A requiem rally and memorial service honoring fallen Heroes;
A requiem rally and memorial service honoring innocent victims of russian aggression near the Wall of Remembrance;
A religious event, “Light of Prayer over Ukraine,” dedicated to the National Day of Prayer, with the participation of representatives of religious organizations of the Bucha City Territorial Community and the Pavlo Chubynsky National Academic Choir;
The unveiling of a memorial plaque to a fallen Defender;
A presentation of the book “Bucha. Women. War.”

• dead
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

On February 21, the exhibition “KHERSON: NOT/stolen” will open in the capital. The event is timed to the fourth anniversary of the start of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The joint project “KHERSON: NOT/stolen” brings together studies and homages to looted museum artworks created by Ukrainian artists. Its goal is to support the Kherson Art Museum, which was looted by russian occupying forces before the city was liberated in November 2022.

For reference: The project was launched in 2024 as a study of the stolen collection of the Kherson Art Museum. It now seeks to draw attention to all Ukrainian museums that have been looted by russian occupying forces since the occupation of Crimea in March 2014 and up to the present day.

• culture
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Maryna Chernyshova is originally from Mariupol. She and her family were in their hometown when the full-scale invasion began. For over a month, Maryna and her loved ones endured life in the city under russian attacks, spending most of their time hiding from enemy shelling in a basement. Living with them was Maryna’s cat, Marcy. The cat provided emotional support for the entire family, helping them stay calm during that terrible time.

When they finally managed to evacuate from Mariupol, Marcy left with them. The family made their way to the Ternopil oblast, where Maryna began contemplating the creation of an anti-stress space. After noticing the many stray cats in Ternopil, she decided to open a cat café.

Funded by her own savings and a grant from the National Network for the Development of Local Philanthropy, the café now houses rescued cats — some are adopted, others live there permanently. It also hosts free events for people affected by the war. The café was recently awarded the “People’s Favorite Space” distinction.

Maryna Chernyshova is available for interviews online or in person, in Ternopil, by prior arrangement.

• animals
• casualties
• occupation
• women
• Mariupol
• Ternopil

Former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolaienko joined Ukraine’s territorial defense forces on the first day of russia’s full-scale invasion. When russian troops occupied the southern city in early March 2022, the 62-year-old former official went underground. He also took part in public rallies against the occupation, joining thousands of Kherson residents who defied russian forces. The largest demonstration, on March 13, 2022, drew more than 10,000 people into the streets.

In April that year, russian forces abducted Mykolaienko. He was held for more than two weeks at a police station in Kherson that the russian military had converted into a makeshift detention and torture site. According to accounts of his captivity, he was subjected to repeated beatings, interrogations, and abuse.

From Kherson, Mykolaienko was transferred to occupied Sevastopol and later moved twice more between detention facilities. He returned home on Aug. 24, 2025, as part of another prisoner exchange. Before that, he had twice refused to be included in swaps, opting instead to give his place to another captive who was gravely ill.

Mykolaienko is still recovering from the physical and psychological toll of his imprisonment. Even so, he has already resumed efforts to help secure the release of other Ukrainians held in russian captivity.

He can be reached for online or in-person meetings in Kherson by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kherson

Azat Azatian has been uprooted three times in his life. As a child, he left Armenia with his family. In 2014, he fled the russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region. And in 2022, he once again found himself under occupation, this time in Berdiansk, in the Zaporizhia region.

When russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Azat began volunteering in Berdiansk. He brought food to people stranded for hours at checkpoints and helped civilians evacuate to Ukrainian-controlled territory. That work drew the attention of russian forces. Azat was abducted, held in captivity for 43 days, and subjected to torture. He later said that thoughts of his wife and three children were what allowed him to endure the ordeal.

After managing to leave the occupied territory and undergo medical treatment, Azat chose not to retreat into private life. Instead, he returned to helping others. He went on to open 11 assistance centers for displaced people, providing support to those who, like him, had lost their homes and sense of security.

In 2025, alongside other civilians who had survived captivity, Azat co-founded the Way of the Freeman rehabilitation center in Zaporizhia. The center focuses on people who endured detention and abuse, offering free psychological counseling, legal support, and physical recovery sessions.

Azat Azatian is available to speak with people seeking support both online and in person in Zaporizhia, by prior arrangement.

• casualties
• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Zaporizhzhia

At 18, she has already endured what many adults never face. When russian forces seized Oleshky in Ukraine’s Kherson region in 2022, she was just fourteen. Her family survived the first months of the occupation in the basement of their home – without electricity, gas, or heat.

This week, Liza boarded a plane for the first time and traveled to the Netherlands to address the 24th session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She spoke about what it means to grow up under russian control and the toll the war continues to take on children in occupied areas.

“I am not standing here today to elicit sympathy,” she said in her remarks. “I am here to be heard, so that people know what is happening to children in the occupied territories right now.”

Liza now lives in Kyiv, where she is studying psychology and working to help support her mother and younger sister. Still, her thoughts often drift back to Oleshky. She dreams of her neighborhood almost every night. Specialists from the Voices of Children Foundation are working with her to help her process those memories and begin to heal.

Journalists can arrange interviews with Liza in Kyiv by prior request.

• children
• occupation
• russian crimes
• Kyiv

Vadym Shevchenko was living with his parents in Polohy, a city in the Zaporizhia region, when russian forces seized it in early March 2022. As explosions shook their neighborhood, the family sheltered in the basement of their home, hoping the fighting would pass.

Just two weeks later, on March 15, 2022, the 25-year-old and a neighbor attempted to flee the occupied city. According to the woman who was with him, armed men in uniforms of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic stopped their car at the final checkpoint and pulled Vadym out. His mother, Olena, believes his lifelong burn scars on his hands led the occupiers to mistakenly suspect he was a soldier.

He was first detained in Melitopol and later transferred to facilities in Donetsk and Olenivka. Today, he is being held in a penal colony in Mordovia, russia. Olena sends letters through the International Committee of the Red Cross and has received two replies from her son. 

She has also learned that he has lost about 30 kilograms during his imprisonment.

Determined to help others facing hardship, Olena now volunteers with the charity “World. Ukraine. Polohy,” supporting families in frontline communities with food assistance.

Interviews with Olena can be arranged in Zaporizhia, in Kyiv, or remotely.

• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kyiv
• Zaporizhzhia

Ivan Zabavskyi, 29, was born in Tavilzhanka, a village in the Kharkiv oblast located just 20 kilometers from the russian border. Before the full-scale invasion, he moved to Kharkiv for work.

When russian forces seized part of the Kharkiv oblast, Tavilzhanka, where Ivan’s mother, Maryna, remained, was occupied. In September 2022, Ukrainian troops liberated the Kharkiv oblast, placing the village on the front line. Ivan lost contact with his mother. Despite his relatives’ pleas, he cycled back to Tavilzhanka to rescue her. During the occupation, Maryna was forced to bury her older sister, who was killed by shelling. Just one day before Ivan set out to save her, Maryna moved to another village, causing them to miss each other.

Maryna later learned that russian soldiers had kidnapped her son and taken him to russia. Ivan was accused of spying for Ukraine. In January 2025, a court in St. Petersburg sentenced Ivan to 11 years in a strict-regime penal colony. In June 2025, the Second Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg upheld the sentence, leaving it unchanged.

Ivan’s mother now frequently attends peaceful rallies organized by the NGO “Civilians in Captivity”.

Journalists can speak with Maryna in the Kharkiv oblast, in Kyiv, or online by prior arrangement.

• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• Kharkiv
• Kyiv