Ukraine: Elderly care in the times of war

20.10.2025

While international emergency relief organisations often use an image of children and women as iconic war victims, we ask how Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and war economy affects the life of senior citizens, especially those in need of care. How has the war altered the lives of families that carry out elderly care and various institutions that provide care? What are the new actors and programs that rise to meet new realities and needs of geriatric care in the wartime economy?

GUESTS of the episode:

Oksana Dutchak (PhD)
Oksana Dutchak (PhD)
I am a sociologist and the responsible research officer under the CareOrg project, currently affiliated with the NGO Institute for Systemic Alternatives (Kyiv). I got my PhD in Sociology from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. My dissertation focuses on labor power reproduction in Ukrainian garment factories in global supply chains. I have been working on the topics of labor protests, gender inequality and austerity, care sectors and social reproduction. Over the recent years, in cooperation with the Rosa-Luxemburg foundation, Clean Clothes Campaign and Bread for the World, I have been participating in policy-oriented and engaged research, related to the topics of both paid and unpaid female labor. I was a Principal Investigator in the Clean Clothes Campaign projects on working conditions in Ukrainian made-for-brands garment sector. Within the cooperation between the Rosa-Luxemburg foundation and Center for Social and Labor Research (Kyiv), I designed and led the project “Who cares? Kindergartens in the context of gender inequality”. Besides my research work, I am a co-editor of the “Commons / Spilne” online journal.
Anna Oksiutovych (PhD student)
Anna Oksiutovych (PhD student)
I am a research assistant in the CareOrg project and a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the Goethe University Frankfurt. In recent years, in cooperation with the Young Christian Workers and the Clean Clothes Campaign, I have been researching the working conditions of Ukrainian workers in different low-paid sectors, including HORECA, the garment sector, and in labor migration to EU. I also worked as a researcher for the Ukrainian department of the War Childhood Museum (Kyiv) and at Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies (Dresden). Besides my research activities, I was also engaged as an educator on women’s and labor rights within the Feminist Workshop NGO (Lviv), of which I am a co-founder.
Choir rehearsals at the University of the Third Age, part of an educational and social day-care program for the elderly in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.
Choir rehearsals at the University of the Third Age, part of an educational and social day-care program for the elderly in Chernivtsi, Ukraine.
Users of the “Hope” day-care elderly care center and internally displaced women from war zones spend many hours each day weaving camouflage nets for the Army.
Users of the “Hope” day-care elderly care center and internally displaced women from war zones spend many hours each day weaving camouflage nets for the Army.
A physiotherapy class, one of the many health benefit daily programs offered at the “Hope” day-care elderly care center in Chernivtsi.
A physiotherapy class, one of the many health benefit daily programs offered at the “Hope” day-care elderly care center in Chernivtsi.
Users and staff of the “Hope” day-care elderly care center honor the memory of fallen defenders with a daily Minute of Silence at 9 a.m.
Users and staff of the “Hope” day-care elderly care center honor the memory of fallen defenders with a daily Minute of Silence at 9 a.m.
Volunteers from an international organization conduct weekly group psychological sessions.
Volunteers from an international organization conduct weekly group psychological sessions.
A culinary club organized in cooperation with the local Chernivtsi synagogue and the “Hope” day-care elderly care center.
A culinary club organized in cooperation with the local Chernivtsi synagogue and the “Hope” day-care elderly care center.
The University of the Third Age receives its official plaque.
The University of the Third Age receives its official plaque.
An internally displaced woman, formerly a professional hairdresser, uses her skills to pass time with her client, who suffers from dementia. Many displaced women in Ukraine, unable to continue their original professions, find temporary employment in the private domestic and care sector.
An internally displaced woman, formerly a professional hairdresser, uses her skills to pass time with her client, who suffers from dementia. Many displaced women in Ukraine, unable to continue their original professions, find temporary employment in the private domestic and care sector.
Lunch at an elderly nursing home in Sad Hora, which had to expand significantly in 2022 to house elderly people relocated from nursing homes in war-affected areas.
Lunch at an elderly nursing home in Sad Hora, which had to expand significantly in 2022 to house elderly people relocated from nursing homes in war-affected areas.
A staff member in an elderly nursing home, reflecting the broader reality in Ukraine where many workers in the elderly care sector are themselves of pension age.
A staff member in an elderly nursing home, reflecting the broader reality in Ukraine where many workers in the elderly care sector are themselves of pension age.
  • Sources:
    careorg.eu
    AI. (2023). “They live in the dark”. Older people’s isolation and inadequate access to housing amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Amnesty International.
  • Dutchak, O. (2023). Together we stand: enforced single motherhood and Ukrainian refugees' care networks. Spilne/Commons (https://commons.com.ua/en/u-yednosti-sila-vimushene-samotnye-materinstvo-ta-merezhi-doglyadovoyi-pidtrimki-ukrayinskih-bizhenok/).
  • Dutchak, O. (2024). Caring for Ukraine: care and social reproduction in wartime Ukraine. Transform Review: European Review of Politics, Issue 1, pp. 66-85.
  • Dutchak, O. (2025). Hierarchies of Care in Ukraine: Neoliberal Reforms, Fragmented Labor and the War [forthcoming].
  • Gutterman, A. S. (2022). Older People and the Crisis in Ukraine. Available at SSRN 4092078.
  • Lomonosova, N. (2024). “They are waiting for us”: The impact of the full-scale war on the working conditions of social workers. CEDOS.
  • Semigina, T., & Karkach, A. (2021). The elderly care, active ageing and geragogy: could they co-exist in Ukraine and how. European Scientific Platform.
  • Semigina, T., & Karkach, A. (2022) "Elderly Care in Greying Ukraine: Challenges and Prospective." The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mikheieva, O., & Kuznetsova, I. (2023). Internally displaced and immobile people in Ukraine between 2014 and 2022: Older age and disabilities as factors of vulnerability. Migration Research Series, (77).
Dr. Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a.M.
Campus Westend - PEG
Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 6
60629 Frankfurt am Main
HPF 55
+49 6978936588 e.pm@em.uni-frankfurt.de
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