At the Borders of War
Ukraine
- Population: 37.9 million
- People in Need: 12.7 million
- People Facing Hunger: 2.7 million
Our Impact
- People Helped Last Year: 223,485
- Our Team: 90 employees
- Program Start: 2022
Ukraine is facing an exceptionally harsh winter. Strikes targeting energy infrastructure have intensified since November 2025 and families are coping with prolonged electricity, heating, and water outages. Populations living near the front-line report symptoms of moral exhaustion, linked to repeated attacks and forced displacement. Women and the elderly are particularly affected, with both their physical and mental health severely deteriorating.
As the war enters its fifth year, the goals Action Against Hunger’s teams on the ground remain unchanged: ensure continuity of essential care, strengthen psychological resilience, and support local actors who protect their communities.
Shrinking Access to Healthcare
According to the World Health Organization, at least 2,700 attacks on healthcare services have been confirmed since February 2022. Additionally, the destruction of civilian infrastructure has created a cascade of breakdowns across essential services, such as the treatment of psychological trauma, chronic health conditions, and maternal and child healthcare.
Going to a medical appointment often requires traveling for miles on bomb-damaged roads — an expensive and dangerous journey. This barrier can lead to delayed diagnoses with sometimes irreversible consequences.
“There are no buses here. To reach the main road, you have to walk over a mile — at 75, I can’t do that,” Olha Drobyazko, an internally displaced person, says.
Action Against Hunger’s mobile team offer a solution. They bring medicines, equipment, and essential supplies to support public health centers and rural clinics, helping local structures maintain a minimum level of care. With psychologists, gynecologists, midwives, doctors, and nurses, these teams offer weekly health services in isolated villages heavily impacted by the war.
Roman, a paramedic at the Kurmany medical post supported by Action Against Hunger, sees the impact daily: “People here simply cannot travel. Some have no way to get medical exams. When organizations come to us and do exams on-site, it is an enormous support for the community.”
Mobile clinics focus on the rural oblasts of Kharkiv and Sumy and isolated villages such as Kurmany or Andriivka, which are less than 40 miles from the frontline. Rural and frontline areas face the greatest challenges to healthcare access due to damaged infrastructure, medical professionals’ displacement, and other service disruptions.
Providing Women’s Healthcare During Conflict
Women are among the first victims of the collapsing healthcare system. Anastasia is a 27-year-old gynecologist with Action Against Hunger’s mobile clinic who is committed to ensuring women’s health needs are met, despite difficult conditions.
“Women aren’t neglecting their health — they simply can’t access it. By the time they finally make it [to the clinic], sometimes it’s too late.””
— Anastasia
The mobile teams provide essential women’s health services, such as early screening for women’s cancers with on-site breast ultrasounds.
“This is extremely important: breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Ukraine.” ”
— Anastasia
Anastasia witnesses every day how constant air alerts, shelling, displacement, and separation from loved ones affects her patients’ health.
“Stress disrupts hormonal balance and deeply impacts women’s health."”
— Anastasia
While many women come to the clinic for medical examinations, these consultations often become a space for emotional support.
“They need someone to talk to, someone to share their worries with. At those moments, you’re not just a doctor, you’re someone who listens and helps them let go of their emotions.” ”
— Anastasia
Elder Health in Wartime
Thousands of older Ukrainians have been displaced against their will and are dependent on relatives, and they carry invisible wounds that go far beyond material loss. Their mental health is profoundly strained by constant change and fear.
Among internally displaced people, the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the effects of limited healthcare. Many live in isolation, in areas still exposed to strikes, with limited resources and reduced access to public services.
At 75, Olha Drobyazko had to flee her village of Skelytsia after months of relentless shelling.
“We held on for two years, then we couldn’t anymore. Shells were flying over us… We slept fully dressed, shoes on,” she recounts.
Her village is now destroyed.
“Today, there is not a single house left: not mine, not my children’s. I have nothing. Everything I had is gone,” she said.
Now living in a small room lent by her brother, she survives mostly on her pension. But for many elderly people, this amount is not enough to cover basic needs.
“I’d like to buy some milk and a few chickens… but everything is so expensive,” says Olha.
For Olha, being separated from her children, who are in a different region of Ukraine, is a daily source of anguish.
“I wait for their calls… Until they call me, I am not myself.”
To support elderly Ukrainians like Olha, Action Against Hunger teams offer access to tailored psychological assistance, including individual follow‑ups, group support sessions, and mental‑health awareness activities.
Olha has taken part in several group sessions at the Kurmany clinic, led by psychologists from the mobile unit.
These sessions create a safe space to express emotions, understand traumatic stress, identify signs of psychological distress, and strengthen coping mechanisms.
By bringing care and specialists directly to those who can no longer travel, Action Against Hunger’s mobile teams play a crucial role in combating physical and mental isolation.
Support for Frontline Health Workers
Mental health interventions remain central to Action Against Hunger’s humanitarian response in Ukraine, including support for the many dedicated Ukrainian professionals who are working on the frontlines. Many are doing so while dealing with their own impacts from the conflict. Their commitment is the cornerstone of humanitarian support in Ukraine.
Our teams offer them dedicated support, including psychological support sessions, stress management training, confidential listening spaces, and adapted intervention protocols. We help ensure their needs are met, as they continue to provide essential care for vulnerable people in their communities.
