Ukraine

Insecurity Insight monitors the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on health care, education, food security, sexual violence and aid workers.

It is over a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. The war has brought devastating destruction for the country’s people as lives have been lost and Ukraine’s fundamental infrastructure for social, health and economic services has been degraded.

Insecurity Insight focuses on monitoring and analysing five areas of impact:

Health Care: Insecurity Insight has contributed research for an interactive map displaying incidents of attacks on health care in Ukraine. Our data concerning attacks on health care in Ukraine is available for download here.

Education: Insecurity Insight monitors attacks on Ukraine’s schools, universities and education professionals. Our dataset is available for download here.

Food Security: Insecurity Insight analyses the impact of the war on both Ukrainian and global food security. Our latest report is available here.

Sexual Violence: Insecurity Insight monitors cases of sexual violence perpetrated in the context of the war. Our latest report is available here and our dataset can be downloaded here.

Aid Workers: Insecurity Insight monitors the killings, injuries, kidnappings and arrests (KIKA) of national and international aid workers in Ukraine. Our KIKA data is available for download here.

Quick Links

Health Care

Although violence against health care workers and infrastructure occurs globally, Ukraine is distinguished by the scale of this.

Figures from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition show that more than a third of attacks reported on health care globally in 2022 occurred in Ukraine amidst Russia’s invasion. Attacks and their impacts include the destruction of medical facilities, equipment and vehicles such as hospitals, medicines and ambulances as well as the killings of health workers such as doctors and nurses.

Combined, these attacks undermine Ukraine’s ability to respond effectively to the health and wellbeing needs of its people at a time when it could not be more urgent.

Hunger and Conflict

The war has had devastating implications for both Ukrainian and global food security. 

Often referred to as the ‘breadbasket of Europe’, Ukraine is one of the world’s most highly-cultivated countries and a key supplier of global food commodities. In 2020, it accounted for 36 per cent of global trade in sunflower oil and seeds, 13 per cent in corn and 11 per cent in barley. 

The war has depleted Ukraine’s ability to export these key commodities. Farmland is contaminated with unexploded ordnances. Key food transport infrastructure has been destroyed. And Russian blockades on Ukrainian ports have disrupted global food supply chains. 

As the World Food Programme notes, a “shortfall in export supplies is driving prices up, leaving import-dependent countries with higher food import bills – or less food to eat.” These processes have added to existing crises to create a situation in which a record 349 million people globally face acute food insecurity. 

Further Resources

Report co-authored by Insecurity Insight and other NGOs featured by CNN

Report co-authored by Insecurity Insight and other NGOs featured by CNN

Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Health Care System, a joint undertaking between Insecurity Insight, eyeWitness to Atrocities, the Media Initiative for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center has been featured by CNN.

Christina Wille talks to The Hindu

Christina Wille talks to The Hindu

The sick, wounded, and young mothers, rest on blankets and mattresses on the floor without proper hospital beds. Hospitals cannot function and patients are at great risk of dying from totally avoidable complications.

Read the full interview with our Director, Christina Wille, and The Hindu’s Bindu Shajan Perappadan on the condition of health care professionals and health facilities in Ukraine.

Ukraine: The Human Price of War

Ukraine: The Human Price of War

Watch this video by CSIS Global Health Policy Center with SHCC chair Len Rubenstein on indiscriminate attacks on civilians and hospitals. Will Russia continue its pattern of indiscriminate violence?