Ukraine

Country Program

Following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and an 8-year-war in the East of the country, the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, causing death, destruction and displacement. After a year, the war concentrates in the East of the country, and military forces of the Russian Federation are targeting critical infrastructure such as power plants and water supply with missile strikes.

At the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian government declared a general mobilization. Men of conscription age are therefore not allowed to leave the country.

LWF World Service has set up a country program headquartered in the capital of Kyiv. LWF  currently carries out renovation and winterization work in Chernihiv oblast (region) north of Kyiv, where the Ukrainian government regained control in June 2022. Together with GELCU and the Youth Council in Charkiv, LWF also helps setting up heating points in Charkiv.

LWF also has a member church in Ukraine, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine, with 19 small congregations across the country. Several of them, as well as the bishop’s office in Charkiv, are currently located in an active war zone. LWF supports it’s local member church through salary payments, generators and communication equipment (Starlink). The church in turn is very active in providing relief to it’s congregations and the civilian population in the neighborhood.