In 2014, pro-Russia forces seized control of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula where the majority of residents are ethnically Russian. While authorities held a referendum in which Crimean voters chose to secede and join Russia, the European Union called the referendum “illegal and illegitimate”. Russia was subsequently expelled from the Group of 8 (G8). Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014.

In April 2014, Russia provoked an armed separatist movement to seize government buildings across eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves independent republics.

Minsk Agreement not implemented

Russian armed units entered Ukraine to prevent Ukrainian forces from regaining control of Donbas. In August 2014, the first Minsk Agreement was signed, aimed at ending the fighting. Its terms were not implemented and fighting continued. The second Minsk Agreement, concluded in 2015, outlines 13 steps to peace, but violence continued to flare up along the line of contact.

Volodymyr Zelensky, elected president in 2019, pledged to end the war in eastern Ukraine. In June 2020, Ukraine was named a NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner. Zelensky cracked down on Russian oligarchs. From April 2021, a build-up of Russian troops along its border with Ukraine began to be reported. Russia demanded “security guarantees” from the United States and NATO, including a ban on NATO expansion.

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an attack on Ukraine, including an invasion by Russian forces from Belarus, claiming Ukraine is part of Russia. Millions of people have fled Ukraine and been internally displaced. The attack has not only been limited to the eastern regions, with the capital Kyiv and other towns being shelled. In early December 2024, the Ukrainian government reported 43,000 soldiers killed in action. At the end of 2024, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) recorded 40,838 civilian casualties since the 2022 attack, including 12,456 killed.

Failed peace efforts

Since February 2022 there have been attempts to initiate a ceasefire and a peace process. But to date all efforts to bring the parties to the table have failed. Switzerland hosted a Ukraine Recovery Conference in 2022 with a focus on post-war reconstruction, following on from the previous Ukraine Reform Conferences. The Ukraine Recovery Conference is held annually.

(Sources: Council of Foreign Relations, Wikipedia)

Women have largely been excluded from official negotiations and peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, as have civil society organisations. For the Minsk peace talks in 2014 and 2015, Ukraine’s delegation included two women, while Russia sent an all-male delegation. Women have continued to be sidelined in the efforts to achieve a ceasefire and an end to the fighting that have taken place since Russia’s attack in February 2022. 

However, women, as part of Ukraine’s civil society, have been engaging in humanitarian aid and peacebuilding in various roles. Women-led groups and organisations coordinate medical care, food supplies and social services for the internally displaced populations. Prior to 2022, they facilitated dialogues between ethnic Ukrainian and Russian groups on the sidelines of formal negotiations and have been involved in the documentation of atrocities committed by Russian forces. When domestic violence began to rise near conflict zones in eastern Ukraine, women activists successfully lobbied Ukraine’s parliament to enact legislation criminalising domestic violence and establishing resources for survivors in 2017.

Activism, relief, resistance

Since February 2022, women have continued to organise and provide relief to meet the urgent needs of conflict-affected populations and have filled critical vacant roles as teachers, health care providers and in factories. Domestic violence again began to increase after Russia’s attack. While some women have joined combatants on the front lines, others have organised small acts of civil disobedience and resistance. Ukrainian women experts have also been advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda since the annexation of the Crimea and during the ongoing conflict and have highlighted its gendered impacts. Ukraine’s first National Action Plan on UN Resolution 1325 was released in 2016.

(Sources: Council on Foreign Relations, Wikipedia, The Guardian)

We began a pilot programme in 2020. In 2021, we held 12 Women's Peace Tables (WPTs) near the then-contact line in eastern Ukraine in collaboration with our Ukrainian programme partner Kharkiv Regional Foundation Public Alternative (KRF Public Alternative). The WPTs focused on women’s security and daily challenges, including economic insecurities, the impact of gender norms and stereotypes and the war’s effect on gender dynamics.

Following Russia's escalation of the war of aggression in 2022, urgent needs arose among WPT participants who remained in occupied areas of eastern Ukraine. Working closely with Public Alternative, we established an emergency fund, distributing essential supplies – food, medical aid, blankets and SIM cards – via a volunteer network to support women during the crisis.

Addressing key issues, creating own projects

The attack of the Russian armed forces delayed the launch of a multi-year programme. Building on the 2020 pilot project, the Ukraine country programme has evolved based on a feminist approach to peace, providing the conflict-affected women both with safe spaces to address key issues for sustainable peace (including gender-based violence, economic exclusion, job scarcity and lack of training opportunities) and with the opportunity to initiate their own small projects, locally and virtually. This as a means of building leadership and strengthening their peacebuilding efforts.

Based on these positive outcomes, we developed a new country programme in close collaboration with our partners. Until 2026, the Ukraine programme will focus on creating an environment for peace while endeavouring to build a vision of peace based on the needs of affected women as part of our pillar Peacebuilding During Armed Conflict. The Ukraine programme seeks to create conditions for women to engage in discussions on peace and security and on political, economic and social transformation. The aim is to reclaim the word “peace” and to define it from a positive, feminist and needs-based perspective – to counter Russian narratives that have “occupied” the word “peace”.

Promoting an environment for peace

With this country programme we promote an environment in which peace is allowed to flourish by building trust among diverse groups of Ukrainian women, including those who have gone into exile and those who remain in Ukraine. With our partners, we facilitate opportunities for women community leaders to gather, learn and exchange as well as to develop their own narratives and to formulate their demands and visions for peace based on concrete needs of their communities. The programme also prioritises boosting the networking skills and strategies of these women community leaders to prepare for potential negotiations and dialogue and be ready to leverage their networks as vital contributors to peacebuilding.