Ukraine: ‘Exhaustion, but also resilience’ amid intensifying attacks

By Linda Bordoni

For Ukrainians, the sound of an air-raid alarm has become part of everyday life. 

But in recent months, the frequency and intensity of Russian missile and drone attacks have made an already devastating reality even harder to endure.

July was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since the early months of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, with hundreds of civilians killed and thousands injured.

In Kyiv alone, residents faced repeated attacks and almost ten air-raid alerts a day during one recent week. Speaking to Vatican News, Henry Wilson-Smith,  Programme Manager for the Emergency Response Programme in Ukraine at CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, which is part of the global Caritas aid network and the official aid agency for the Catholic Church in England and Wales, said civilians are currently facing increasingly worsening conditions on the ground.

“You can imagine trying to take your kids to school or going to work, and an air-raid alarm goes off on your phone, and you have to choose,” he told Vatican Radio.

“Do you continue at risk to your life or do you drop everything and seek shelter?”

He explained that for those living closer to the front lines, such interruptions have become a permanent feature of life. In Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, he added, authorities have installed protective netting over parts of the city in an effort to shield people from small explosive drones.

“It just gives you a sense of the kind of everyday reality facing normal people across the country,” Wilson-Smith said.

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Exhaustion and resilience

And the consequences of the war go beyond the immediate danger of bombardment. Years of attacks have left families displaced, homes destroyed and essential services repeatedly disrupted. Yet Wilson-Smith says that alongside profound exhaustion, he continues to encounter an extraordinary determination to survive.

“I mean, there’s an incredible sense of exhaustion, but also kind of resilience,” he said.

He recalled a recent visit to the Kharkiv region where he met an older couple, Ihor and Ruslana, whose home had been destroyed by fighting. They chose to remain, living in a shed behind their damaged house while rebuilding it “brick by brick”.

“Despite this exhaustion, there’s still this incredible resilience from people across the country to survive amid these conditions,” Wilson-Smith said.

A Caritas social worker distributes firework to local families (Credit @CAFOD)

Preparing for another winter

The coming winter is expected to bring another major test as Russian attacks have repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving families without electricity and heating.

“Unfortunately, we’re anticipating another incredibly difficult winter,” Wilson-Smith said, noting that CAFOD and its Ukrainian partners are already preparing, distributing heaters, power banks and blankets to families in frontline areas.

And almost five years into full-scale war, the humanitarian response is increasingly about more than immediate survival.

CAFOD, he explained, rises to the challenge working with Ukrainian organisations whose staff often come from the very communities they serve.

“These are aid workers who’ve themselves experienced displacement, loss, the trauma of war,” he said. “And so they’re really best placed to support others who are now going through those experiences.”

Among the organisations CAFOD partners with are Caritas Ukraine, Caritas Spes and other faith-based partners. They collaborate and coordinate not only to provide food, water, clothing and emergency shelter, but increasingly to help families return to work, children to return to school and people to access psychological support.

They also repair damaged homes and help displaced people recover essential documents lost during the chaos of war.

Social kitchen in Kyiv (Credit @CAFOD)

‘A feeling of not being alone’

But for Wilson-Smith, humanitarian assistance is only part of what sustains people.

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Pope Francis repeatedly expressed his closeness to what he called “martyred Ukraine”, while Pope Leo XIV has continued to appeal for peace and to express his solidarity with those suffering from the war.

Those messages, the Emergency Programme Manager said, are heard: “They absolutely do reach people on the ground.”

The solidarity expressed through prayer and humanitarian assistance, he added, can be as important as the material support itself.

“The Ukrainians that I’ve spoken to across the country are so aware of that solidarity, that prayer, that feeling of not being alone,” he said.

Prayer and action

Asked what people outside Ukraine can do, Wilson-Smith points to three things: prayer, practical support and staying informed.

“People on the streets can help and can build hope through prayer and through action,” he said.

He encouraged people to support humanitarian assistance through the Caritas network and to stay informed also by seeking out accounts written by Ukrainians themselves.

“Try to search out and find perspectives, articles written by Ukrainians themselves who are telling their story of their experiences on the ground,” he said.

Above all, he says, he is inspired by the Ukrainian humanitarian workers he meets. Many, he noted,  have themselves been displaced, lost relatives or have family members serving in the military. Yet they continue to care for others.

“Despite everything they’ve gone through, they’ve chosen, as they rebuild their own lives, to serve others,” Wilson-Smith said.

“And so I feel that it’s our responsibility to stand alongside them in that mission.”

Click here to find out more about CAFOD’s presence in Ukraine and to make a donation in support of its Emergency response.

Standing in line to receive aid from CAFOD partners in Ukraine (Credit @CAFOD)