Russia’s war in Ukraine primarily affects Ukrainians who are defending their lives and freedom. While the war is ongoing and it is, unfortunately, impossible to foresee when it will be over, international discussions on recovery responses to Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine have already been ongoing since 2022.
Post-conflict periods are usually times of tremendous social, political, and economic changes, offering the opportunity to redefine social norms and to advance progressive constitutional and legal changes. Thus, an intersectional feminist approach to recovery can support all those impacted by the conflict, address inequalities that have been further intensified by the war (limited access to education, care responsibilities, gender-based violence) and contribute to building more just societies. It is thus high time to amplify the voices of Ukrainian feminists and to jointly advance feminist perspectives on the reconstruction in Ukraine.For these reasons, we, financially supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) and in close cooperation with feminist civil society organisations, are jointly implementing the project “A Feminist Foreign Policy towards Ukraine: Feminist Recovery and Reconstruction”. It is aimed at developing concrete policy recommendations for the German government as well as other EU governments and the EU on what a feminist approach to recovery and reconstruction towards Ukraine can look like.