KYIV, January 26, 2025 – As relentless shelling continues to plunge Ukrainian cities into darkness, frontline aid workers are facing escalating risks—particularly from the growing threat of attack drones.
Delivering Aid Under Fire: The Daily Reality for Ukraine’s Humanitarian Workers
Table of Contents
The World Food Programme’s Oleg Kemin describes the challenges of bringing food to vulnerable communities amidst constant attacks and a collapsing infrastructure.
- Every night brings new challenges as Ukrainian energy infrastructure is targeted, causing widespread blackouts.
- Aid workers are adapting to the constant threat of drone attacks, utilizing notification systems and protective netting.
- Communities closest to the frontline face the most severe needs, with many residents refusing to evacuate their ancestral lands.
- The World Food Programme is also involved in demining efforts to restore agricultural land and ensure food security.
For Oleg Kemin, a Security Operations Officer with the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the job means travelling deep into the 1,000-kilometre contact line separating Ukraine from Russia. “Every night like this, with the shelling attacks, it’s quite difficult for us; the energy infrastructure of Ukraine is under fire, so each such attack can mean new blackouts all across the country. Also, there are new victims which creates additional tensions,” Kemin explained. He added that those forced into shelters are less productive, and his role involves tracking air raid alerts to keep staff safe.
What is it like to work under the constant threat of attack? Kemin reflected that, approaching four years since the war began, the initial fear hasn’t diminished. “I still remember the first attacks, I still remember the first air raid alert and it was very scary. It’s impossible to get used to it, especially when you can see the damage and destruction, but people are somehow getting used to everything.” He described moments of exhaustion where alerts are missed, or explosions begin before reaching shelter, forcing reliance on emergency procedures.
The Most Vulnerable Communities
Some of the most pressing needs are concentrated in Pokrovsk, Kupyansk, Konstantynivka and Dobropillya, all frequently in the news. Kemin described witnessing a heartbreaking trend: “It’s really sad to see with the gradual moving of the frontline, how life starts to escape from these cities. On your first trip it’s a normal city, but then the shops start to close, more building become damaged and there are fewer people on the streets. On the final mission, you see only an empty and closed city and people who have no place else to go.”
A WFP vehicle passes under drone-protection nets in Kherson, Ukraine
Protecting Aid Convoys from Drone Attacks
The proliferation of first-person view drones poses a significant challenge. Kemin explained that when humanitarian convoys approach frontline areas, they inform both sides of the conflict of their GPS coordinates using the standard Humanitarian Notification Systems (HNS). However, this protection only extends to UN vehicles. To mitigate the risk to other vehicles, Ukrainian forces have constructed corridors of netting along roads, spanning 10 to 15 kilometers.
“The small drones don’t have enough velocity to penetrate through the netting, so they get stuck in it, and that can offer some protection. Let’s say it’s the very, very last hope, but at least it exists,” Kemin said. He cautioned that the nets are not foolproof, as drones can find gaps, particularly during windy conditions, and a torn net can disable a vehicle.
The Stories Behind the Statistics
Kemin shared a poignant encounter with an elderly woman in the Kharkiv region, who refused to leave her village despite the ongoing conflict. “Here is the tomb of my husband, of my kids, I have nowhere else to go; the only thing I can do is to look after their tombs,” she told him. He also recounted meeting individuals who attempted to relocate but returned due to financial hardship. “It’s our land, it’s the house in which I grew up, it’s a house which was built by my great-grandparents, it’s my land and I don’t want to leave!” one resident told him.
A UN vehicle passes through a destroyed town in Ukraine.
Restoring Ukraine’s Farmlands
Beyond immediate aid, the WFP is also involved in demining efforts, recognizing that up to 25 to 30 percent of Ukraine’s agricultural land is contaminated with unexploded ordnance. “Ukraine is a huge agricultural country and grain from Ukraine helps to feed countries in Africa and almost all over the world, so one of the goals for us is to participate in that activity to make it possible to fight hunger, not only in Ukraine, but using, let’s say, Ukrainian grain also all around the globe,” Kemin concluded.
