The smell of coffee blends into a cloud of dust permeating the home of Andriy, who welcomes us in, offering up a warm cup. We are in Izium on this particular morning, a city in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, not far from the frontline. A crowd of neighbors outside is clearing out debris with shovels and rakes. Andriy’s house was hit by a missile in the night.
“Everyone is alive,” he says. “That’s the most important.”
I landed in Ukraine last July, joining a World Food Programme (WFP) team putting in marathon days under extraordinarily difficult conditions. Yet we’ve managed to fulfill our mission: to support 1.6 million of the country’s most vulnerable people monthly with food and cash assistance.
Now, as 2025 begins, the challenges facing Ukrainians – and the humanitarians supporting them – are immense. Over the past four months alone, our nongovernmental partners and food distribution sites were targeted no fewer than 19 times.
Major military advances have triggered new waves of displacement and evacuations. Attacks on power infrastructure, including on Christmas Day, have destroyed Ukraine’s capacity to produce approximately half the electricity it needs for the bitter winter months ahead. In my 25 years with WFP – working in such hotspots as Yemen, Kosovo and Libya – I have never witnessed such relentless targeting.
Resilience and solidarity
As Andriy – his clothes still stained with blood from the blast – swept up the rubble in his home, I marveled at his hospitality and kindness. In spite of endless attacks, Ukrainians continue to endure and maintain a profound sense of humanity.
During my travels to frontline areas, I’ve witnessed utter devastation: homes and buildings destroyed; villages emptied of people; cemeteries teeming with the dead. I have heard of a town where the only surviving business is a flower shop, presumably to supply flowers for funerals.
Over half of all towns within 10km of the frontlines do not have a functioning market. And more than half of all towns within 30km of the frontlines lack basic necessities such as food, water, electricity and medicine.
Meanwhile, more than 139,000 square kilometres of land across Ukraine – an area larger than England – need to be surveyed for landmines and explosive remnants of war.
But I have also seen amazing resilience and solidarity: local nongovernmental groups supporting their communities; neighbours looking out for one another; and WFP doing what it does best – being there for families whose lives and hopes have been shattered by war.
I am incredibly proud of what our staff is doing in the most trying of circumstances. On any given month, all across the country, our team of over 300 local and international employees are at hand – ensuring the most vulnerable Ukrainians have the food and nutritional assistance they need.
WFP’s Ukrainian staff have experienced the same losses as the people we serve. When the war started, many left lucrative jobs at home and abroad to join WFP and support their fellow countrymen.
They, too, have been displaced from frontline towns. Some employees are from areas currently under Russian occupation, and may never see their homes again. Many are mourning friends and family killed in the conflict. And yet they still clock into work every day, resolved to make a difference.
From delivering cash and food to families fleeing war, to delivering school meals to young children studying in underground bunkers, WFP is there, assisting communities and the Government’s response. We’ve worked with partners to deliver food and cash to evacuees and those remaining near the frontlines; to clear small farms of landmines; and to assist the elderly and people with disabilities in hospitals and boarding homes.
I can’t count how many parents I’ve met who have lost children, young people who have lost parents, and civilians who have lost limbs. They want the war to end; they want to return to their homes. They just want to live normal lives.
Peace dividends
So, while we humanitarians also live under constant air raid sirens, rolling power blackouts, the threat of drones, and a latent fear of nuclear disaster, I know that for many Ukrainians it is far worse.
Today, Ukraine faces an uncertain future. Political change afoot in both Europe and North America is driving more active discussions about potential peace talks. Whatever the outcome, WFP remains committed to supporting Ukrainians.
What happens to Ukraine matters to the world. Pre-war, the country was the world’s seventh largest exporter of wheat, fourth largest exporter of barley, and biggest exporter of sunflower seeds. Its farm output could feed some 400 million people around the globe.
That’s one reason to look forward to the end of this war – when Ukraine can again become the granary for much of the world. But a just peace settlement would bring so many other dividends.
Thousands of children could return to school; millions more could study without the constant interruption and stress of air sirens and explosions. Families who have been separated for two or three years could finally reunite. And Andriy and his wife in Izium could rebuild their house without bracing for the next strike.
