A new research project aims to learn from communities about care during war
Millions of Ukrainians with disabilities are living through the war with far too little attention from researchers and policymakers. A new collaborative project — Caring to Survive — sets out to change that by documenting the everyday experiences of persons with disabilities and using its findings to reshape how the world responds to disability in conflict zones.
An international team of researchers, artists, and organisations of persons with disabilities across Ukraine and the UK will work directly with communities across five Ukrainian cities, training local artists to co-create research with participants.
The project will produce audio and video testimonies of living through the crisis, commissioned artworks, scholarly publications, policy briefings, and a Festival of Care - all designed to inform humanitarian responses in Ukraine and beyond.
The 30-month UKRI-funded project is led by Edinburgh Napier University in partnership with People's Palace Projects (PPP) at Queen Mary University of London, the National Assembly of People with Disabilities of Ukraine (NAPDU), and the Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Using arts-based and social science methodologies across Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, and Cherkasy, it will document the informal care networks that persons with disabilities have built for themselves during the war.
How persons with disabilities actually survive conflict — the networks they build, the knowledge they hold, the care they give each other — remains almost entirely undocumented.
Caring to Survive places persons with disabilities in Ukraine at the centre of the research. In doing so, it aims to fundamentally shift how humanitarian organisations around the world understand and include persons with disabilities in conflict response.
Before the invasion, Ukraine had approximately 2.7 million people registered as living with a disability. That figure has risen sharply: according to the European Disability Forum, citing Ukraine's Ministry of Social Policy, approximately 3.4 million people in Ukraine now live with disabilities, with estimates indicating this could reach five million due to the war's ongoing impact.
In 2023 alone, the Medical and Social Expert Commission issued 145,000 new disability certifications, primarily for war-related injuries. The Ministry of Health estimates that by mid-2024, 100,000 amputations had been performed as a direct result of the war — a figure that continues to rise in a country now classified as the most heavily mined on the planet.
"The war in Ukraine has radically changed the lives of millions and significantly increased the number of people with disabilities," said Viktoriia Nazarenko, Secretary General of the NAPDU. "Yet, at the same time, it has revealed the incredible strength of mutual support within communities. Persons with disabilities, their families, and civil society organisations are uniting to help one another, find solutions, and build care networks even under the most difficult conditions. It is this experience of solidarity and resilience that is vital to research and making visible."
Nazarenko added that the project represented a crucial opportunity to shape the future of humanitarian support. "We are convinced that the results of this work will help not only to better understand the experiences of persons with disabilities but also to shape new approaches to humanitarian support and the inclusive reconstruction of Ukraine," she said.
"The war in Ukraine has exposed just how quickly care systems can collapse, and how resourcefully communities of persons with disabilities respond when they do," said Professor Kiril Sharapov, Principal Investigator and Professor in Forced Migration at Edinburgh Napier University. "At a time when disability is too often reduced to vulnerability in humanitarian responses, this research centres persons with disabilities as creative agents of change."
The project's premise is that persons with disabilities in Ukraine have not been passive victims. In the absence of adequate state support - evacuation corridors that failed wheelchair users, shelters without adaptations, social services overwhelmed by displacement - communities have improvised.
Informal care networks have formed around everyday practices: cooking, gardening, singing, storytelling. It is these overlooked acts of mutual support, what the research team calls the "aesthetics of care," that Caring to Survive will document, elevate, and learn from.
Professor Paul Heritage, Founder and Director of People's Palace Projects at Queen Mary University of London, said the arts-driven methodology is central to reaching experiences that conventional research misses. "This research will take place in the heart of a war zone, focusing on those who are most forgotten in the chaos of conflict," he said. "Our arts-driven approach isn't just about creativity or academic study: it's a lifeline, connecting community networks forged in adversity."
The research will train ten Ukrainian artists — two from each of the five cities — in arts-based research methods, before those artists lead creative workshops and one-to-one sessions with persons with disabilities in their homes.
Five artworks will be commissioned from local artists based on the research data, and the project will culminate in a Festival of Care showcasing creative and documentary work developed with participants across Ukraine.
The project's legacy will extend beyond Ukraine. With conflicts intensifying globally, the team intends the frameworks it develops — for supporting persons with disabilities in war zones, and for rebuilding inclusive care infrastructure in post-conflict settings — to be applicable wherever communities are forced to survive without functioning state support.
"With the war in Ukraine now in its fifth year," said Professor Sharapov, "the insights we generate will shape how care is understood and delivered not only in Ukraine, but in conflict-affected communities globally."