This week saw the 4th anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite much talk in the West of peace talks, there is no realistic sign of an end to the war. In fact, the people of Ukraine are experiencing one of the hardest periods of the conflict, with Russia’s relentless aerial bombardment leaving some half a million people in Kyiv without power.
In early March 2022, just a week or so after the invasion, Ivanna Khrapko, of the State Employees Union of Ukraine (SEUU) spoke to UNISON, via Zoom, with her first-hand account of the nightmare unfolding in her country.
Ivanna has remained in touch, making friends with a number of UNISON members. And today she’s back online, as the newly elected deputy president of her union, to reflect on what she wryly calls “this bad anniversary” and the death, destruction, courage and resilience that remain part of her everyday life.
Catastrophe
First, from an unassuming union office in Kyiv, she describes the “crazy winter” that is leaving no-one unaffected in her country.
“It’s been much worse than before, because Russia has targeted all of the electrical power plants here in Kyiv and everywhere in Ukraine,” she says. “In 2022, 2023 we didn’t have as much of a catastrophe as we do now. I slept in a tent inside my apartment, for a week, because it was like five degrees, without water, without heating, without electricity. Some of my friends didn’t have heating for more than one month.
“Thank God now our local government is trying to provide electricity to these buildings, so people can heat themselves with electric heaters. There is also a district in Kyiv with big tents, yellow or orange tents, with spots where people can charge their phones, and heating. I visited a couple of these tents on Saturday night, but the Russians were firing more than 30 rockets, it was so loud that I froze. And we didn’t sleep. It was scary, you know.
“And they’ve now started to target water infrastructure, which will affect civilians, and hospitals and schools, of course. They would like to create a collapse in Kyiv.”
A Kyiv ‘resilience point’ provides heat and electricity to residents © Zachary Tarrant/Alamy
If bombing and blackouts aren’t difficult enough, Ivanna mentions the incident at the weekend, which Ukraine is calling an act of Russian terrorism, when two homemade bombs were exploded in Lviv, killing a 23-year-old police officer and injuring 25 others. “My friends were discussing this and saying that it’s not safe to walk around. In his statement yesterday, [president] Zelensky said that we should be ready for more terrorist attacks.”
Nevertheless, Ivanna describes her country’s stubborn hold on normality, at least away from the frontline. Their efforts include some extraordinary determination and ingenuity.
In Kharkiv, an industrial city that suffered some of the most devastating destruction at the outset of the war, the locals are literally moving underground to keep their society working. One school is now occupying a metro station, another has been built 11 metres underground, complete with generators, ventilation and so forth, with plans to follow with a kindergarten; the city also has an underground theatre, which Ivanna has visited herself. “And it was actually amazing”.
She explains: “Kharkiv is 40 kilometres from the Russian border. They have destroyed so much of it. But Kharkiv was the first capital of Ukraine, it’s a very big city, a very industrial city, and they are very strong people. Because of constant bombing they have only 40 seconds to hide from the ballistic rockets – 40 seconds! And that’s the reason they’re doing this. Actually, they have a lot of facilities underground.”
In more conventional ways, she says, “besides the frontline zone, life in Ukraine is still going on, and people work hard and go every day to their offices. I can go and grab some coffee and have lunch, but some cafes and restaurants have closed because of this difficult situation with electricity. There are some parties here in Kiev but,” she adds ruefully, “for me, it’s difficult to dance. I haven’t been able to dance for the last four years.”
The work continues
Ivanna’s union work has continued, at a seemingly frantic pace, throughout the war. When we first spoke four years ago, she was head of education for the SEUU, which represents members in the civil service and local government. And she was heavily involved in the trade union youth network, created under the umbrella of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU), which brilliantly used Viber messaging to offer an effective means of communication around the country – gathering and sharing information, and helping with the distribution of food and medicine.
Now 36, she’s about to step down as head of the FPU’s youth council. But in November she was elected deputy president of the SEUU, which at her age is quite unprecedented and, she feels, may have been a result of her own pushing for younger voices to be heard in the decision-making bodies of union.
“But it’s a miracle at national level. For young people here it’s something amazing,” she says proudly of her election. “More than 10 regional organisations of my union delegated me to this position.”
There’s much to do, for all unionists, with the draft of a new Labour Code on the table, alongside other legislation, some of which is a direct result of the war, for example a law regarding working conditions in enterprises which were under Russian occupation, before being liberated by Ukraine.
“Now, in 2026, I think trade unions can become a stronger actor in the fight with legislation,” Ivanna suggests. “Last year was a year of elections, and I think we have some new, interesting leaders now, almost everywhere, like the healthcare union, the education union, the metallurgic workers union. They are strong and progressive.”
Attending class in a metro station in Kharkiv. © Mykhailo Palinchak/Alamy
This does not mean that the war-time role of unions – in supporting their members with food, medical supplies, information and so forth is over.
“I think the part of our work – and truly of my life – which is connected with war is never ending. Normal trade union work is 50%, when we advocate around collective agreements, discuss legislation, and all of this. My second 50% is humanitarian initiatives, because we continue to support members in the frontline zone, some civil servants, some municipal workers, who stay there to provide services for civilians who also stayed there. Especially now, during this crazy winter, when our workers stay without any electricity and heating, so we provide them with some supplies, you know, power banks or warm clothes. And also we support our guys and girls who are fighting in our army.
“I also still have a very big responsibility for our colleagues from the Youth Council who are in the frontline. We still collect money and supplies to help them. Also, sadly, we have more of our colleagues and friends missing in action. It is my personal initiative that we should support the families of our activists.” She mentions one “brother” missing in action for two and a half years, whose wife and son Ivanna personally sends money to each month – while she and some of her Youth Council colleagues support the son “on behalf of his father” during his kickboxing competitions.
The toll
Ivanna has known a number of friends killed or missing in action over the past four years. With such loss and hardship, so many life-or-death problems that need solving, I wonder how she manages to cope?
“Because I do not have any other choice, you know. I had some offers last year and in 2024 to move to Brussels, to move to Sweden, to work there, but I refused those offers. When I’m away from Ukraine for two or three days, it’s OK. But one week, two weeks, it’s like crazy for me. This is a psychological process. You start to feel angry. You worry every time about everything. All the time checking social media. You can’t be calm. I’m surrounded by thousands of different people and I’m afraid to let them down, I’m afraid not to find a chance to help them. I feel guilty, and it’s like a big stress.
“I meet with my psychologist once or two times per week, when I have time. And she once told me that this is like a kind of a PTSD. I think that all of Ukrainians have this PTSD, in different levels. For me, it’s funny to say, but I feel safer if I stay here in Kyiv, even when we have a big bombardment. I have control. I know I’m at home.
“My mum and dad sometimes are angry, because originally I’m from small village in the west of Ukraine, and it’s a bit safer. My father was super angry when I came back to Kyiv in the first weeks of war, when Kyiv was surrounded by Russians, and he was angry when I stayed here during this large bombardment and didn’t want to leave. But I said, to my dad, ‘Look, here I will be safer than if I sit at home with you and be angry every day.”
She says that therapy has become much more accepted in her country, especially for young people. “Actually, we advocate for it. In my union, and in a lot of Ukrainian trade unions, we have seminars about mental health and discuss for example how we can include mental health [provisions] in collective agreements.”
Strong for each other
So, it would seem that Ivanna’s coping mechanism, the only way she can manage her mental health in this period, is to remain in one of the most dangerous parts of her country, looking after other people.
This instinct is typified by her choice of an assistant, in her new role as SEUU deputy president. A colleague from another union alerted Ivanna to a young woman, Sofiia, 20 years old, whose family home had just been destroyed by a Russian drone attack – killing her mother and seriously injuring her father. Sofiia and her two sisters suffered slight burns but were OK.
“I met with Sofiia. She studied International Public Law in one of the great Ukrainian Universities. She’s speaking French, English. She’s dancing. She’s a member of some youth organisations in Ukraine. I was afraid to meet with her, because, you know, she lost her mom – it’s heartbreaking and especially at her age. But I met with her, and she said, ‘Ivanna, I need to have a lot of work, because I do not want to think about what happened. And I need to work because I have sisters, and I should be very strong to help them get through this tragedy.
“And for me, it was a super big motivation, now I have Sofiia, to be even stronger myself. And now she’s working with me.”
Solidarity
Ivanna’s trips abroad are often related to bilateral projects with unions in Sweden and Norway, involving some relationships that go back several years before the Russian invasion. More recently, she has struck up a rewarding relationship with UNISON.
Last September/October a delegation from three UNISON Scotland branches visited Kyiv and Kharkiv, meeting with Ukraine colleagues and delivering aid. This year Ivanna and a colleague returned the compliment for one of those branches, making an online address to Lothian Health’s AGM. And in January, Ivanna and another colleague participated in a UNISON webinar, in part aimed at sharing knowledge and experience in relation to disability equality.
Ivanna hopes that more webinars will follow, with an equally bilateral approach. “I really appreciate the trade union movement in the UK, your spirit and how you organise workers. And, maybe, it can be that not only Ukrainians learn from you, but we can share our experience, how we operate in this very awful situation, in war, how we organise our work, communication, collective bargaining and other things. We also have a lot of things we can share.”
She values UNISON’s national statement of support for Ukrainian trade unions and workers, and its membership of the Ukrainian Solidarity Campaign. And she appreciated the visit from the Scottish delegates, wishing more unions would do the same, as she believes that it is “super helpful” that delegates can see what is happening to her country with their own eyes, and report back to their cities and branches.
The future
If Ivanna conducts most of our interview with a smile and a kind of matter-of-fact delivery, there are signs of her voice breaking when I ask about the peace process.
“You know, I can say a lot of Ukrainians hate all these peace talks because it looks like manipulation and political games. I think we lost belief that this peace negotiation can bring something good. We hear the statements of Zelensky and other guys who are involved, that Russia will stop destroying our infrastructure – but then after two or three days, they are bombarding Kyiv and around Ukraine. From my perspective, it doesn’t look like Putin and his inner circle are ready to negotiate and to have a peace.”
If that’s the case, how can someone maintain a sense of hope for the future?
“It’s difficult to even think about the future. But of course, I also believe that one day I will wake up and the war will be over. What I really would like to see is international law, to see justice when Putin and all these Russian guys take responsibility for these crimes they have committed against civilians. For me, this is hope, that there can be some justice, because all I see is bullshit and manipulation and injustice.”
According to the UN refugee agency, 5.8 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and 3.7 million have been internally displaced due to fighting. Many are women with children.
CNN reports that after four years of war, Ukraine’s birth rate is collapsing, with an increasing number of people struggling with fertility or putting off the decision to have children, leading to one of the world’s worst demographic crises.
Russia is said to have lost 1.2 million soldiers dead and wounded in its effort to take Ukraine territory, more losses than any major power in any war since World War II.
Thanks for this really inspiring, interesting, informative article. Ivanna sounds an incredible person and I’m glad we have solidarity with Ivanna and Ukraine through UNISON.
For Ukrainians, this ‘anniversary’ is not a date on the calendar but a reminder of lives lost, families displaced, and people struggling to survive. As a Ukrainian living and working in the UK, I read this with both pride and heartbreak. Ivanna’s story reflects the reality my family and friends face every day. I’m grateful to UNISON members for keeping Ukraine on the agenda and recognising the ongoing impact on workers, young people, and communities. Your solidarity reminds us that we are not facing this alone.
I did see in the early stages of this war that people in the areas of Ukraine which had been occupied by Russia also had no electricity, for a few weeks. When a Ukrainian official announced ‘power is restored’ in such an area it was obviously power for schools, homes & hospitals. Unfortunately this man was regarded as a traitor for restoring power in an area occupied by Russian, and his family (in western Ukraine) were assaulted. The whole tone of this article is pro Ukraine, when it should be anti war. There have also been allegations that trade union officials who represented members who had been discriminated against for being Russian speakers had been assaulted at home.
An amazing, informative article. The strength and determination to withstand and survive the dreadful bullying of Putin and Trump show the quality of Ukraine’s population.
The population of the Western world needs to stand firm in its support for this remarkable country and its population. I can only wish you all well in your struggle and hope sincerely that you manage to offset the harm Putin is attempting to do.
Let me know how I might usefully contribute to assisting citizens in Ukraine