The names of the people presented in this exhibition are Ievgeniia, Diana, Serhii and Yuliia. Their lives have been affected by the war and its devastation. Uprooting, precarity, family separations and obstacles to health care and education have deteriorated their living conditions and physical and mental health, and compromised their futures. This exhibition features the Ukrainian people’s courage and resilience, as well as the action of humanitarian NGOs that have come to their aid.
From the first day of Russia’s war of aggression, on 24 February 2022, France has provided resolute support to Ukraine and its people.
As of 1 January 2025, it had contributed close to €436 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Every year, the Crisis and Support Centre (CDCS) of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs finances some 30 partner organizations conducting crucial projects in the sectors of health, food security, energy, water, hygiene and sanitation, education, protection and landmine clearance.
The CDCS would like to thank Acted, Action Against Hunger, Electriciens sans frontières, HALO Trust and Humanity & Inclusion for their contributions to this exhibition and, more generally, its partners for their work in the field.
#StandWithUkraine
Action Against Hunger (ACF) / Gonzalo Höhr
More than 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes and find refuge elsewhere in the country or abroad because of the destruction. In Palanca, March 2022, at the border between Ukraine and Moldova, the local organizations created a welcome centre for Ukrainian refugees. They pass through here before boarding buses that take them to the capital of Moldova or to Romania.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) / Adrienne Surprenant, agence MYOP
When they temporarily abandoned their homes, millions of Ukrainians lost their livelihoods. Nearly two out of three Ukrainians have seen their income decrease, and 44% are now unable to cover the cost of their food and other essentials. These two Ukrainian refugees are waiting at the Dolhobyczow border crossing in Poland.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) / Cathy-Anne Tijerina
Russia’s war of aggression has uprooted and separated thousands of families and has caused a great deal of suffering and trauma. In Warsaw in June 2022, Ievgeniia is saying goodbye to her mother and grandmother, who chose to return to Ukraine after spending three months in exile with her. Action Against Hunger collaborates with local organizations to support Ukrainians travelling through this Polish train station.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) / Gonzalo Höhr
Ukrainians and immigrant workers who fled the war live in very difficult conditions. In Chisinau, in Moldova, this gymnasium converted into emergency housing accommodated approximated 500 people a night during the first months of the war. Humanitarian organizations such as Action Against Hunger provide refugees with clean clothing, food, sheets and hygiene products.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) / Gonzalo Höhr
For Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons who have lost everything, feeding themselves is one of the biggest challenges of daily life. The most vulnerable families can therefore benefit from emergency food assistance. Near the border posts of Palanca and Tudora in Moldova, teams of cooks supported by Action Against Hunger prepare hot meals every day in several reception centres.
Humanity & Inclusion (HI) / Tom Nicholson
The CDCS partner NGOs support health structures and healthcare workers so that the population has access to care they need. For example, Humanity & Inclusion has equipped the centres so that they can make protheses. The NGO has also trained clinical and psychological practitioners to take care of the wounded. Serhii, victim of a bombing, is undergoing a rehabilitation session with a physical therapist.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) / Arthur De Poortere
According to the United Nations, in 2024 nearly 40% of the Ukrainian population – a total of 14.6 million people, including 2.9 million children, 3.4 million elderly people, and 2.1 million people with disabilities – were in need of humanitarian assistance. In all of the centres, NGO workers assess the needs of the most vulnerable people and provide them psychological and/or material first aid.
Electriciens sans frontières (ESF) / Jean-Baptiste Baldi
Russia’s strikes considerably damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructures. To re-establish lighting, heating and functioning public services, Electriciens sans frontières delivered and installed more than 500 generators, 15,000 radiators and solar kits. Charlotte, who works for Enedis and is a volunteer electrician, is hooking up a generator to a hospital network in western Ukraine.
HALO Trust / Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Ukraine is one of the countries with the most landmines in the world. The CDCS finances NGOs that map the areas with landmines and raise people’s awareness of the risks posed by explosive devices. It also supports NGO projects specialized in landmine clearance and the training of dedicated professionals. In this picture, two HALO Trust employees are taking careful steps forward while looking for landmines to be destroyed in a field in the Chernihiv Oblast.
HALO Trust / Tom Pilston
There are different techniques to detect explosive devices. One of them is carefully using a fine probe to detect possible trip wires hidden in the vegetation that can detonate an explosive device. This is what Yuliia is doing in this picture of a field in the Kharkiv Oblast.
Acted / Mykyta Volkovych
At the one-year mark of the war, more than 700 schools in Ukraine had already been damaged or destroyed. To help them re-open and resume classes, the CDCS finances educational projects. Chernihiv school no.20 is, for example, being fully rehabilitated by Acted, and a bomb shelter is being built. Other projects train teachers in education during emergency situations.
HALO Trust / Viacheslav Ratynskyi
Landmine clearance is essential to the rebuilding of Ukraine over the long term. Diana is 20 years old. A newly trained rescue worker and demining specialist, she progressively clears the land around an object that could be an explosive device. The HALO Trust team then clears the field.
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