Speaking of the Kyiv capital, which was shaken by some of the deadliest attacks in the war last week – and after a visit to the Sumy front line – representative of women in Ukraine Sabine Freizer Gunes described to UN news Nathalie Minard both emotional exhaustion and resilience which she had witnessed.
The interview was published for more clarity.
PK Press Club: The situation of civilians in cities is drastic, with bombings and aerial sirens that sound for days and nights at the same time. Could you describe your personal experience of living in a war area?
Sabine Freizer GUNES, representative of UK Women in Ukraine: Living in an area of war like Ukraine is, on the one hand, quite difficult, because as a UN manager, we are not allowed to bring our families here. So a difficulty is to live far from your family.
Usually, in terms of war situation and attacks, they tend to occur at night. One of the clear challenges is to be able to spend your week, when you woke up several times overnight. Sometimes there are attacks on Kyiv several days in a row. Sometimes it’s calm for a week or 10 days.
Not knowing when you are going to sleep, if you will be able to sleep on a full night, or if you should wake up three or four times, if you were to go to the refuge, if you have to check the news – I would say that mentally, it is the most difficult thing. It’s not so much fear, he doesn’t know what your night will look like.
A resident near the ruins of a residential building in kyiv, looking at the emergency teams looking for survivors after a missile strike in the early hours of the morning on August 28.
UN news: you were recently in Sumy, very close to the eastern front line. Many people have left it for safer places, but others have chosen to stay. How do women and partners of the UN and the UN help them?
Sabine Freizer Gunes: It is quite extraordinary that many Ukrainians remain in their front -line communities. And some of these places have been attacked since 2014. What we see is that people continue to live their lives.
I have just returned from Sumy, which is 20 kilometers from the Russian border, and the city is still completely dynamic. Companies continue, cafes, restaurants and stores are still open. People always walk in the street.
This is the situation in Ukraine: from one moment to another, the tragedy can strike.
Life seems quite normal for many hours of the day, but there is always something hidden beyond. For example, with some of our colleagues, their husbands can fight on the front line, their fathers or their brothers may have disappeared.
There is always this element which is not visible but which is behind the reality of the working people.
UN women work in close collaboration through local women’s rights organizations. When we have an attack, we ask them what type of assistance we can provide.
Very often, they will be specifically assembled to meet the needs of women, especially elderly women. These are elderly women who are usually the last to leave their homes.
They insist on staying in their house, in their little lessons, because they believe that it is a much better result than to live in a collective center.
What we are trying to do then is to provide them with basic items so that they can stay at home.
One thing I saw yesterday in Sumy, I saw that women’s rights organizations were doing very different activities. They do cultural activities, activities to support young people, they provide legal advice or psychosocial advice. They help women acquire new skills to start their own business.
On the one hand, there is a humanitarian crisis and we must provide vital support, but on the other hand, in the same city, we also discuss recovery and development.
UNFPA’s mobile psychosocial support teams travel across Ukraine, including on the front line, offering immediate emergency interventions as well as access to longer -term assistance.
UN news: Can you share the story of a woman who particularly moved you?
Sabine Freizer Gunes: One thing that really emotional was recently was to speak to six women who each represented a different NGO.
We were talking about our cooperation and we asked them, “How have we helped you in recent months?” And they said that a thing they really enjoyed was a retirement we organized. I thought they were going to say that they benefited from material things that we gave them.
Instead, they said that what they enjoyed was a retirement, which was organized in western Ukraine, which is generally more peaceful. And we gave them five days to be in a calm space where they could know each other, share experiences and where they could sleep. One of them said, “It is the first time in three years that I have a decent night”.
It was very powerful to hear, that giving space, a feeling of normality to our partners can be incredibly powerful.
Listen to the full interview:
UN news: He has been three and a half years since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine Russia. What are the most common impacts on the mental health of women you have encountered?
Sabine Freizer Gunes: Almost all those who have lived in Ukraine and who have lived in Ukraine for three and a half years have a mental health problem. There is a clear effect of war on the mental health of everyone. No matter who we work with UN women, we always include a mental health component.
In the Ukrainian city torn apart by the Snihurivka War, a revolutionary initiative is to train women as tractors engines – a role traditionally dominated by men.
For example, we are currently forming women to be bus drivers, to take care of positions that were held by men, but now with men at the front, women are necessary to occupy these jobs.
UN news: Do you see an increase in sexist violence (GBV)? What are the specific challenges of mental health facing surviving women of sexual violence linked to conflicts; And how do you approach them?
Sabine Freizer Gunes: Conflict -related sexual violence is a real challenge in Ukraine. But very often in conflict situations, sexual violence linked to conflicts (CRSV) is something that is hidden under the carpet.
Here in Ukraine, the government itself has spoken of sexual violence linked to conflicts and has really encouraged those who are surviving to talk about it openly and to ask for remedies and repairs.
In Ukraine, the office of the High Human Rights Commissioner documented 484 cases.
But it is expected that it is only the tip of the iceberg, that there are many cases that are not known because they occur today in occupied territories, in the territories occupied by the Russian Federation, but also people do not yet feel ready to speak about it.
For the CRSV in Ukraine, what is interesting is that there are also many cases against men. So, out of these 484 cases, 350 cases are men and 119 cases are women.
Indeed, a large majority of these cases are cases that occur in detention. Survivors of sexual violence linked to conflicts need extensive psychological support.
UN news: What urgent shortcomings exist to provide support for women in Ukraine today? How do financing cuts affect your activities?
Sabine Freizer Gunes: Financing cuts have a massive effect on the ability to provide support and services to Ukrainian women and girls. What we find to be most worrying is the effect of cuts on Ukrainian women’s rights organizations.
UN women carried out a study in March, about a month after the United States declared its cups. We have surveyed 100 different women’s rights organizations.
Sixty-three percent have declared already significant disruptions to their operations due to the cuts. Thirty-two percent expected that they could suspend their operations in the next 6 months. Sixty-seven percent have already been forced to dismiss staff. And 50% expected other layoffs.
More worrying, 60% of women’s rights organizations were forced to reduce or suspend their gender -based violence services.
This directly affects the lives of women and girls. You imagine that if you were a woman who lived an abusive relationship, you know that there is a shelter on the road, and suddenly you say, okay, that’s too much. You go to the refuge, you hit the door and no one responds because there is no more funding to keep this shelter open.
