Marking Three Years of CORE’s Ukraine Response

A Comprehensive Look at Four Years of CORE’s Ukraine Response

Three Years of CORE’s Ukraine Response

In early March 2022, days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, CORE arrived in Poland to activate an immediate response to support Ukrainians in need. Based in Rzeszow, the team rapidly spread into the countryside, seeking out informal shelters where everyday Polish citizens were offering what space they had to the deluge of refugees crossing the border. Within the first 12 days of the war, 2 million Ukrainians fled to neighboring countries, seeking safety from the violence and uncertainty at home.

Ukrainian refugees crossing the border into Poland at Medyka in early March 2022.

Pierogi being made by hand to feed residents of an informal shelter visited by CORE, not long after the outbreak of war.

A primary school gymnasium in Przemysl, Poland, converted into a temporary shelter for refugees that hosted mainly women and children.

CORE staff speak to refugees staying at a former worker’s hotel hastily converted into an informal shelter. After fleeing home in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, it took six days for the refugees to reach Jaroslaw in eastern Poland, where the shelter was located.

CORE’s Immediate Regional Response

In Poland, CORE supported informal shelters, provided cash assistance, set up a warehouse to ship critical supplies into Ukraine, established social integration programs for refugees, and worked alongside IOM to retrofit existing buildings into capable shelter centers.

CORE’s response quickly spread to Romania, and soon after Ukraine itself, where our response effort is now based as the conflict enters its fourth year.

CORE launched a series of life-saving cash assistance programs for Ukrainian refugees, including this distribution event in Radymno, Poland in April 2022.

CORE stored and distributed essential supplies, including hygiene and dignity kits, from CORE’s Rzeszow warehouse across the border to Ukraine.

In May 2022, Ukrainian refugees in Rzeszow picked items from a free store supported by CORE in Rzeszow.

CORE staff prepare for the distribution of toys for Children’s Day at a daycare for refugee children run by a local community partner in Rzeszow.

To ease integration of Ukrainians fleeing to Poland, CORE coordinated Polish language classes for Ukrainian refugees living in Krakow, halfway through the first year of war.

A ribbon cutting ceremony for one of the four public buildings CORE renovated in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to provide short to mid-term shelter to Ukrainian refugees entering Poland in January 2023.

Providing Essential Resources to Frontline Areas

Across Poland and Romania, many refugee families were unable to meet basic needs including food, medication, and hygiene items. CORE transferred supplies from both Poland and Romania into Ukraine with truckloads and shipments of relief items, reaching western Ukraine and frontline areas and heavily shelled towns in southern Ukraine.

Within Romania, CORE also supported the Romexpo Humanitarian Hub, the largest refugee resource center in Bucharest, providing informal shelter solutions, and distributing much-needed cash relief to Ukrainians.

A load of supplies from CORE that has just crossed the border from Romania being repacked into another truck heading to Mykolaiv, Ukraine.

The first job fair for Ukrainian refugees seeking employment in Romania organized by Jobs4UKR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). CORE partnered with local partner ANAID to participate.

Ukrainians living in Bucharest select produce at the Romexpo Humanitarian Hub. CORE provided 7.5 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables weekly to the Romexpo Humanitarian Hub which was visited by 1,500 refugees a day on average in 2023.

In addition to supplying Ukrainian refugees with heavy equipment, including washers and refrigerators, CORE also provided ovens for the Edmond Nicolau shelter in Bucharest, Romania in 2023.

Ukraine In Focus

Since 2022, the work of our dedicated Ukrainian team has been comprehensive and widespread, touching 17 of Ukraine’s 24 oblasts. CORE has met urgent needs by delivering food, hygiene kits, cash assistance, and heating fuel.

CORE has also been systematically addressing longer-term needs through infrastructure repair, winterization, and supporting administrative centers. CORE has built, reconstructed, and repaired bomb shelters, schools, individual homes, and playgrounds.

A collective center, or a temporary shelter, for displaced Ukrainians at the Polytechnic University in Lviv, supported by CORE in May 2022.

CORE staff in July 2023 traveling with a shipment of food and hygiene kits for a community near the front lines in Kharkiv.

Mykolaiv residents in December 2023, utilize a CORE supported “Invincibility Shelter,” a safe place to gather, charge phones, sit by a heater, or enjoy a warm drink.

Viktoriia and Kyryl Draka who evacuated from Kherson in their new apartment Lviv, where they received rental assistance support through a CORE partnership with Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF).

A group of displaced Ukrainian children enjoy a playground built by CORE and a local partner in Lviv Oblast in the Spring of 2024.

School children work on crafts during the opening of the Lyceum No. 55 shelter in Mykolaiv. CORE renovated the shelter with local partners to allow for classes to safely continue through air raid warnings in the only city 50 kilometers from the front lines.

In June 2024, staff from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Zaporizhzhia Oblast used CORE-provided laptops to monitor air quality in the region in a mobile laboratory. Zaporizhzhia is located only 50 kilometers from an active nuclear power plant that could sustain damage in the fighting.

CORE delivered food, hygiene kits, medical supplies, and critical items for bomb shelters, such as heaters and generators for around 5,000 people in frontline towns in Eastern Ukraine. November 2023.

A village resident in Kherson Oblast demonstrates the functioning gas stove in her home after CORE repaired the gas lines to restore access in December 2023.

In August 2024, CORE replaced a water tower that had been severely damaged by Russian air strikes in a village in Mykolaiv Oblast, providing water to about 1,200 residents.

Firewood is prepped for delivery to collective centers in the Lviv Oblast, providing essential warmth in preparation for Ukraine’s unforgiving winter.

Firewood is delivered to the Sydorenko family at their home in a village near the front line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in November 2024.

In December 2024, CORE repaired the roof of a home in Kherson Oblast that was damaged by heavy fighting in the region.

CORE’s Ongoing Commitment

In the last six months of 2024 alone, more than 200,000 Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, bringing the total number of displaced persons to a staggering 10.6 million.

In the cold of January, coordinated large–scale Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure caused emergency power outages in seven regions.

Every day, the fighting continues. There is more to be done, and there will be much to do long after the guns are silenced. CORE remains committed to adapting our critical programs to support Ukrainians and efforts to rebuild for the long haul.

If you’d like to stay up-to-date with our ongoing response in Ukraine or would like to support this important work, please visit our Ukraine Response landing page.