UKRAINE MENTAL HEALTH RELIEF FUND

Project Report – Mi z Ukrayiny! / Psychosocial Support in Ukraine

March 2026

Three years of war. Millions of invisible wounds.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Ukraine has been living through one of the largest humanitarian crises in Europe since World War II. But behind the visible destruction — bombed cities, displaced families, destroyed hospitals — lies another crisis that is harder to see: the collapse of mental health across an entire nation. The World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 4 Ukrainians is at risk of developing a mental illness as a direct result of the war, and that between 1 and 2 million people will need specialized mental health services. Today, only a fraction of them can access any help at all.

This is where your donations are making a difference. Through the Mi z Ukrayiny! project, COOPERA is working to close that gap — not by replacing Ukrainian professionals, but by strengthening them. Our approach focuses on training local psychologists in evidence-based trauma and psychosocial support methods, equipping them to reach communities that remain underserved. Ukrainian mental health professionals are among the most committed people we have ever worked with. They are treating patients while managing their own grief, their own fear, their own losses. Investing in them means investing in Ukraine's long-term resilience.

The scale of need is staggering — and well-documented. Research published in The Lancet found that more than 50% of non-displaced Ukrainians already met clinical criteria for PTSD after the first year of the invasion, rising to over 62% among refugees abroad. Studies on Ukrainian soldiers show that nearly 46% have been diagnosed with PTSD and 34% with major depression. Meanwhile, documented attacks on healthcare infrastructure increased by nearly 50% between 2024 and 2025, further reducing an already overwhelmed system. Only 10% of internally displaced people with mental health conditions have received any professional support.

Marta is 41 years old and lives in Kharkiv. In the spring of 2024, a missile strike hit her neighbourhood while she was at home with her daughter. The building across the street collapsed. She pulled her daughter under the table, covered her with her own body, and waited. They survived — but Marta stopped sleeping. For months, every loud sound sent her back to that moment. She couldn't take her daughter to school. She couldn't be alone. "I knew I wasn't crazy," she told one of our psychologists. "I just didn't know how to live anymore." After eight sessions of trauma-focused support with one of the psychologists trained through Mi z Ukrayiny!, Marta describes herself as "slowly returning." She still flinches at loud noises. But she takes her daughter to school now. That is what recovery looks like in wartime Ukraine.

Thanks to you, we are part of the response. To date, Mi z Ukrayiny! has trained 25 Ukrainian psychologists in evidence-based trauma care and reached more than 68,900 people with psychosocial support. Your donations are helping us reach a population that has shown extraordinary resilience in the face of relentless trauma — and that deserves equally extraordinary care.

— Thank you.

Links:

• https://www.instagram.com/p/DTQWg4ZDR5-/?img_index=1
• https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ4aM94NYKo/