Propositioned for sex and abused for speaking Ukrainian: refugee women's experiences in the EU

It was nearly two years ago now, but when Iryna Ihnatenko thinks back to that conversation, her voice begins to shake. She'd been unable to hold back tears during the interview itself.

In 2024, Ihnatenko was conducting in-depth interviews with Ukrainian refugee women in Poland about the violence they had experienced. One interviewee, who had sat there hugging herself throughout the conversation, began slowly stroking her own head at one point. She admitted that that was how her grandma used to comfort her long ago when she was little.

Ihnatenko's fieldwork was part of a major study by the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), which has been collecting and analysing data on violence against women in European Union countries for many years.

At the end of February this year, FRA published a report, Seeking Safety from War – Violence and rights abuses against women from Ukraine. It examines the prevalence, forms and patterns of gender-based violence and sets out practical measures to improve safety and help displaced Ukrainian women access justice.

Over 4 million Ukrainian refugees had temporary protection status in the EU as of the end of last year, and 60% of them live in three countries – Germany, Poland and Czechia. These were the countries where FRA conducted its research. Researchers spoke with more than 1,200 Ukrainian women who had left the country because of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Their findings may come as a shocking and disturbing revelation for those who care about the fate of Ukrainians abroad.

In addition to the general survey, FRA organised a series of in-depth interviews with 30 women who had experienced violence (it was this type of interview that Ihnatenko was conducting). The researchers had planned to spend no longer than an hour on each conversation to try to lessen the emotional burden on the respondents, who were being asked to discuss personal and traumatic experiences.

But in the course of the fieldwork it became clear that in most cases, an hour was not enough.

The Ukrainian women wanted to speak out.

Sex in exchange for housing or work

Finding housing and finding work: those were the two basic challenges Ukrainians faced when they arrived in the EU. The first proved easier than the second.

At the time of the survey, only one in ten respondents were still living in hotels or shelters. The rest had managed to find separate housing or had moved in with others. In Germany, seven out of ten Ukrainian women did not pay for housing, as it was covered by state programmes or charities. In Czechia and Poland, only 8% of respondents received such assistance.

Temporary protection status allows refugees to work in their host country. In reality, however, fewer than half of the Ukrainian women surveyed had been able to find employment, and only 5% were continuing to do the job they had done in Ukraine – the rest had had to switch to different work.

But even having a job is no guarantee of an average standard of living. Only one in five of the Ukrainian women said they were able to make ends meet easily; the rest found it hard to make ends meet. Unsurprisingly, many admitted to borrowing money just to get by.

One of the reasons for this is obvious – the terms and conditions of their employment. A quarter of respondents were either very poorly paid or, for various reasons, not paid at all. For many, an eight-hour working day would have been a luxury: they had to work significantly longer hours. One in three worked without a contract that could have protected their rights or under a contract that did not cover all their working hours.

FRA project manager Sami Nevala told Ukrainska Pravda: "We asked the women whether they had encountered offers of housing, transportation or employment, offers that they considered suspicious or somehow too good to be true, or in the extreme case, maybe even attempts at human trafficking. Then we saw that this occurred much less among women who are living in Germany.

So that could also be a sign that if they are able to access more financial support, they may not be so vulnerable then to accept offers, for example, for employment that might then come with exploitative conditions or with somebody trying to exploit them in the workplace."

What made these offers seem suspicious? In some cases, the women were asked to hand over their passports to their employer. Others suspected that sexual services were expected in exchange for housing or work. These factors, which the researchers consider to be typical warning signs of human trafficking, often appeared together.

Suspicious offers were encountered most frequently by respondents in the youngest age group (18-29) and the most vulnerable – those who had serious limitations on their daily activities, only basic education, or no financial resources at all.

The report notes that the largest number of exploitative offers was recorded in the early months after the full-scale invasion and that later their frequency declined.

"Another thing is maybe not knowing the labour laws in the EU member states – not knowing, for example, if you're asked to work very long hours or work without breaks or in some other conditions, whether that is legal or not legal; and if you have doubts about whether it's legal, who you can contact, where you can get more information, if you feel that your rights are being abused, who you can report to," Nevala explains.

In its survey, FRA was guided by timeframes rather than territorial boundaries: the questions concerned any incidents that occurred after 24 February 2022. As a result, the report frequently makes a distinction between events that took place in EU countries and those that happened earlier in Ukraine or during their journey to the EU (transit). FRA explains that it was important to understand what these women had gone through and what help they might need.

In this article, we focus specifically on Ukrainian women's experiences in EU countries.

"The main objective was to ensure the rights of Ukrainian refugees in EU countries. This was evident from the wording of the questionnaire," notes Olena Babak, Client Service Director at Ipsos Ukraine, which collected data for the FRA survey as a subcontractor.

One in two women had experienced abuse for speaking Ukrainian

One in four Ukrainian women in the EU has experienced physical violence since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to the survey results. This figure does not include cases involving threats alone.

In 62% of incidents, the violence occurred in the host country. Respondents aged 18 to 29 were most frequently affected.

Thirteen per cent of those surveyed said they had experienced violence within the past year. To understand how these figures compare with the broader situation in the EU, FRA referred to its own 2014 study, in which women in Czechia, Germany and Poland were asked about their experiences of violence during the previous 12 months.

"The rates found in the 2014 study are lower than the rates found in the current survey [for example, in Poland they are three times lower – ed.], and this difference could be considered to highlight that women fleeing the war against Ukraine are at an increased risk of physical and/or sexual violence – in member states or when returning to Ukraine – compared with the general population in these countries," the report states.

In nearly half of the cases of physical violence, the perpetrator was a stranger. In 40% of cases, the attacker was someone known to the victim, such as a colleague, relative or partner.

The survey contained a separate question about people's reactions to hearing Ukrainian spoken in public. This revealed that one in two Ukrainian women refugees have been in a situation where someone reacted aggressively or even attacked them after hearing them speak Ukrainian.

Iryna Ihnatenko heard many stories from Ukrainian women about the sincere sympathy and active support they had received from locals. But sometimes the opposite happened.

Ihnatenko recounts one of the stories that has stayed with her the most: "A young woman in Poland was queuing to buy a ticket. When she started speaking Ukrainian on her phone, the man behind her stepped forward and pushed in front of her. He said a Ukrainian wasn't going to stand in front of him. When she tried to go past him and get back to her place, he pushed her aside roughly. And of course there were verbal insults as well.

What struck the young woman most was that the only people in the queue who spoke up in her defence were two other Ukrainian girls. Everyone else just stood there."

Ihnatenko says the young woman approached some police officers, together with eyewitnesses, and reported what had happened. The police responded by asking for her ID. She did not have any on her. Ihnatenko says the officers then began making calls to check whether she had a residence permit. They warned her that the next time she was found without ID, she would be fined PLN 500 (about US$135).

"They had no interest in the man who had treated her so roughly. They just left," Ihnatenko concludes.

"I was on the tram with my son. [...] And my son says: 'Mum, how many more stops do we have to go?' I say: 'Two, but keep your voice down.' I always tell him this, wherever we are.

And [a man] suddenly gets up, and says: 'You from Ukraine? [...] Why did you come here? Go away from here!'

All the people who were sitting in the tram, no one stood up for us … and he grabs me by the sleeve, pulls me up and says: 'Get out.'

And I grab my son by the hand and press the button to get the tram [doors] to open sooner. And he tells me: 'Leave, go away. You shouldn't be here. You're living here off my money, sponging off me, just go away.'

At the stop I grab my son and fly out of the tram. He really shook me hard. I pushed him away from me, while holding my son. The man was about 120 kg [265 lb, nearly 19 stone] and I realised that I couldn't do anything. And everyone else sitting nearby – no one stood up for me, no one said anything."

– From the FRA report. Interview in Czechia, woman in the 35-59 age group

Sexual violence that often goes unreported

Six per cent of the Ukrainian women surveyed said they had experienced sexual violence since the start of the full-scale war.

The difference between the number of such cases in Ukraine and in EU countries is relatively small. However, a significant share of the crimes in Ukraine were committed by Russian military personnel – this obviously refers to refugees who encountered them during occupation.

One in two Ukrainian woman reported experiencing sexual harassment. Forty percent of those who experienced sexual harassment said it had happened before they left for the EU and 86% had experienced it in EU countries.

The harassment most often came from strangers. More rarely, it involved men already known to the women. Around one in seven victims said the perpetrator was a service provider, such as a doctor or aid worker.

Among the women who experienced physical or sexual violence, 72% told someone about the incident. They spoke to friends, family members, or staff at hospitals, religious organisations or legal support services. However, only 13% of Ukrainian women whose most serious incident occurred in the EU reported it to the police.

"We see low reporting rates also for the general population of women in the EU based on our other surveys on violence against women, so the reporting rates for women from Ukraine are not actually that different from the reporting rates of women in the EU in general. I think the violence that women from Ukraine have experienced is somewhat different because of many of them living apart from their partners, meaning that many of these cases then involve other people, like people at work, or people the women are living with, or complete strangers," stresses FRA project manager Sami Nevala.

When the incidents involved harassment rather than direct violence, the women were even less likely to report them to police – only 3% of victims contacted law enforcement. The same percentage sought professional help. Most preferred to discuss what had happened with friends or relatives.

The Ukrainian refugee women were also asked about psychological abuse by their partners. One in three women whose husbands remained in Ukraine said they had experienced it. This most often took the form of anger if they spoke to other people, suspicions of infidelity, or attempts to restrict contact with family and friends.

"One form of psychological abuse involved controlling behaviour by partners: persistent demands to know where the woman was, who she was speaking to, and what she was doing – expressed in a jealous manner, without any grounds. The results show that this form of violence can be carried out through social media and phones. In other words, even if women live separately from their partners, such control can continue and effectively follow them everywhere as long as they remain in contact," Nevala explains.

"He managed to make advances, but I didn't allow it to escalate to violence. And he was always drunk, his breath smelled unpleasant. And he was rude. Such an unpleasant person.

When we were texting and calling before my arrival, he was completely different.

He harassed me, but we didn't come there to serve him. We came to escape the war."

– From the FRA report. Interview in Germany, woman in the 35-59 age group

***

The Temporary Protection Directive, which the European Union brought in after the full-scale invasion to support Ukrainian refugees, will expire on 4 March 2027. Each country will decide separately on what happens next.

For Ukrainians, this means a new period of uncertainty.

"Under the Temporary Protection Directive, women have certain rights to services, for example, for victims of rape. The issue that we highlight in the report is that women who currently receive such healthcare services or psychological support for war-related violence, for example, should not lose this support when the temporary protection ends," Sami Nevala stresses.

Could Ukrainians be forced to return home? The EU Fundamental Rights Agency does not, of course, raise this question directly in its report. However, it emphasises that EU member states should refrain from forcibly returning women and girls who have suffered traumatising gender-based violence.

Rustem Khalilov, Alina Poliakova, Ukrainska Pravda

Translated by Myroslava Zavadska

Edited by Teresa Pearce