Providing hope to families in Ukraine

Iryna Onyshchenko and Roman Onyshchenko lived in a village in the Kherson region, southeast Ukraine, which was among the first to be occupied following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In June 2023, the destruction of the nearby Kakhovka Dam caused massive flooding, forcing the couple to flee the region and move to Kyiv.

Like many others, Iryna and Roman lost all of their possessions, including their identity papers which are crucial for people in Ukraine to be able to access services and benefits.

Irish Aid supports UNHCR and local partners to provide free legal aid to displaced and war-affected people in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, UNHCR and partners have provided more than 650,000 free legal counselling sessions in Ukraine.

Iryna says this support was vital for them:

Doing everything we could, all three of us managed to leave: me, my husband and our then 82-year-old grandmother,” she says. “We lost everything. We settled in the Kyiv region. Here we met the specialists from Rokada (UNHCR’s NGO partner). They helped us a lot with our documents and provided legal advice. They also helped my grandmother prepare an application for a hearing aid.

Maiia Krasnenko was also among the many people forcibly displaced from the Kherson region. Along with her 10-year-old son, Dmytro, she moved to Kyiv. To support their integration in Kyiv, Dmytro received psychological support and began attending IT lessons supported by Irish Aid through UNHCR and local NGO Poruch.

Across Ukraine, there are huge needs for psychosocial support as people deal with the impacts of displacement and loss.

According to UNICEF, 44% of all school children report mental challenges. Irish Aid supports UNHCR and local partners to provide psychosocial support to displaced and war-affected Ukrainians.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, we have supported more than 300,000 people with psychosocial support.

Together with her family, Hanna Koshel was forcibly displaced from her home in Zaporizhzhia region to Kyiv region in August 2023, but then the war caught up with them again. In April 2025, their new home in Kyiv region was severely damaged in an aerial attack, rendering the apartment inhabitable and destroying the family’s belongings.

The family are receiving support from Irish Aid through its partnership with UNHCR. This support includes cash support to help pay rent and help to find employment.

As a result, Hanna and her family found a new apartment and received support to cover their first six months of rent. Hanna has finished training to become an accountant and looks forward to earning a higher income as a result.