Almost 25% of female Ukrainians have suffered physical or sexual violence since the start of the Russia’s war of aggression, and 54% have been physically or verbally abused in the EU for speaking Ukrainian in public, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said on Tuesday 24 February.
Some 2.5 million women and girls have fled the war in Ukraine since February 2022. By the end of 2025, 1.8 million of these Ukrainian women had been granted temporary protection in the EU, allowing them to live and work there.
The report, ‘Seeking Safety from War – Violence and rights abuses against women from Ukraine’, is based on interviews conducted in 2024 with over 1,200 Ukrainian women in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, as well as on more in-depth interviews with 30 women.
Among Ukrainian women who had encountered Russian forces before seeking refuge in the EU, 10% of those interviewed by FRA had been interrogated, and 51% of those had suffered physical humiliation and 29% sexual humiliation.
These women also face higher levels of sexual harassment in the EU: 51% have been victims of sexual harassment since the start of the war. Very few women have reported the incidents, either to organisations supporting people from Ukraine (3%) or to victim support services (3%).
The exploitation risk is also significant: 24% of the respondents said they had received potentially abusive offers of transport, housing or employment. Among working women, 36% work without a contract and 24% are underpaid or unpaid.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/kvy (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)