{"id":294950,"date":"2026-02-21T09:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T09:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/294950\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T09:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T09:27:10","slug":"ukraines-women-at-breaking-point-after-four-years-of-war-as-attacks-on-energy-healthcare-continue-un-humanitarians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/294950\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s women at breaking point after four years of war as attacks on energy, healthcare continue \u2013 UN humanitarians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freshly back from a visit to the country UN Women<\/a>\u2019s Chief of Humanitarian Action Sofia Calltorp told reporters in Geneva of the suffering inflicted upon families left without heating, electricity and reliable shelter amid brutal winter conditions. Sixty-five per cent of Ukraine’s energy generation capacity has been destroyed by deliberate attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose energy blackouts, they are not just technical disruptions,\u201d she said. \u201cThey directly undermine women’s safety, protection and economic security.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms. Calltorp explained that extended darkness, lack of street lighting and disrupted transport \u201cseverely restrict women’s mobility and increase exposure to harassment and accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Ukrainian women work in sectors that are the hardest hit by extended power cuts, such as education, health, social services and retail, and are now losing their jobs, the UN Women official said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A widowed mother of eight starts a life from scratch in a new city and inspires other displaced women.<\/p>\n

No electricity, no school, no salary<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Kyiv, in a heated tent that had been set up to support citizens, I met with Irina\u2026 She told me: \u2018No electricity means no school for my children and no electricity means no job for me. It means no salary.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

UN Women reported that 2025 was the deadliest year of the conflict for women so far and that since 24 February 2022, more than 5,000 women and girls have been confirmed killed and 14,000 injured, with the real toll likely far higher.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, Ukraine\u2019s women are \u201ccarrying the country forward\u201d and women-led organizations are at the heart of humanitarian response, Ms. Calltorp said. They provide vital protection, psychosocial support, emergency assistance and livelihood opportunities to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians \u2013 yet they are now under serious threat because of funding cuts.<\/p>\n

One in three women-led organizations warned that they may not survive beyond six months, according to a recent survey focused on the impact of cuts in foreign assistance<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the funding reductions in 2025 and 2026, these organizations in Ukraine are projected to lose at least $53.9 million by the end of the year,\u201d said UN Women\u2019s representative in Ukraine Sabine Freizer Gunes. \u201cIf this continues, an estimated 63,000 women in 2026 will lose access to services\u201d such as support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be more women in need of psychosocial and legal support. There’ll be less political participation for women, less economic opportunity and less economic growth in Ukraine. Weakening women’s organizations at this moment risks weakening the entire humanitarian and recovery architecture of Ukraine,\u201d Ms. Freizer Gunes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Women<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Ukrainian Women\u2019s Fund<\/p>\n

Women fleeing the combat zones of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts stand in line to receive humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n

Vulnerable groups hit hard by attacks on energy infrastructure<\/p>\n

Turning to the broader humanitarian impact of the energy crisis, Jaime Wah, Deputy Head of Delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Ukraine, said that when the power goes out \u201cit is often the most vulnerable who carry the consequences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor older people, people with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses, this is life-threatening,\u201d she insisted.<\/p>\n

Speaking from Kyiv, Ms. Wah said that while \u201ccold homes increase illness,\u201d the psychosocial toll of the power outages is \u201cequally serious.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cProlonged darkness, isolation and constant uncertainty are exhausting communities,\u201d she stressed. \u201cMany people have experienced traumatic events, yet access to specialized mental health and psychosocial support remains limited.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conflict\u2019s devastating toll on health is further deepened by attacks on healthcare which are \u201csevere and widespread\u201d in Ukraine, World Health Organization (WHO<\/a>) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said.<\/p>\n

In the past four years WHO has verified more than 2,870 confirmed attacks, resulting in 233 deaths and 937 injuries among healthcare workers and patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFacilities operate beyond surge capacity, with the workforce depleted and infrastructure damaged,\u201d Mr. Lindmeier warned.<\/p>\n

The WHO spokesperson also said that the reported number of people with disabilities has increased by nearly 390,000, or more than 10 per cent, since February 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beyond this figure, \u201cit’s the support [for people with disabilities] that is missing, the freedom of movement for people, the lack of supplies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers are one thing. The story behind [them is] a much bigger one,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freshly back from a visit to the country UN Women\u2019s Chief of Humanitarian Action Sofia Calltorp told reporters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-294950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}