A video director and a law student who met at a dance class are now providing essential services to children in Ukraine’s front line city of Kharkiv through volunteer organization CodeIT4Life, in an extraordinary yet typical story of how war has turned locals into activists.
All over this city I have met people who before Russia’s full-scale invasion of 2022 had little interest in volunteering or activism, but the war upended the social order, and many are finding themselves doing things they never imagined they would or could.
I’ve worked alongside people at the front line who used to be musicians, or footwear designers, or shop owners. They and others are responding to the humanitarian emergency on Ukraine’s eastern front by urgently learning new skills, and simply getting on with what needs to be done.
Ilona Ismailova was a law student and, she said, a “radical pacifist” when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. For the next six months, she didn’t leave her apartment. It was a difficult time. I reported from the city in those weeks immediately following the invasion, with almost constant shelling of the streets by Russian forces until they were driven back towards the end of the year.
Ilona says the war has changed her pacifist beliefs. “I used to be that angelic little girl, but now I believe it’s a double standard for me to be a pacifist in Kharkiv when it’s under constant attack,” she said.
In those early weeks, Evgeniia Semeniak moved with her boyfriend into the basement of an office building which became a hub of volunteer activism, where they prepared food parcels for vulnerable people in the city. “Strangely, packing food and medicine for 15 hours a day sort of worked like an anti-depressant,” she said. “You’re not a victim, you are proactive, doing something, but it was hard work. I lost 10kg (22 lbs) in those months.”
She said that while “ninety per cent of our friends left after the invasion, we stayed. Of course, like everyone else we thought the war would be over in a few months, that this was a temporary emergency. We even planned our wedding for the summer.”
After the initial shock of the February 2022 invasion, things moved to a new phase. By August the war thundered on, with the city still under attack, but the Russian military had been pushed back towards its own border, and Kharkiv began to function a bit more normally.
“We realized we had to get organized and think about longer term projects,” said Evgeniia, “that the war wasn’t going to be over soon." She got married in the summer of 2022, as planned, despite the difficulties, and started planning for the next phase of humanitarian work. “I knew Ilona from dance classes. We got in contact and started to figure out how to help children facing this terrible war trauma. In the winter of 2023, we created our first children's space, and realized we needed to create more of them in other communities, but lacked the time and resources.”
Ilona laughed: “We had arty backgrounds, basically a bunch of Bohemians who had no idea how to run a non-profit organization at the front line of a war. A friend with experience working in non-profits gave us insights of how NGOs actually run.”
Now they are thriving, although raising money is a constant challenge. Out of sight of many donors and foreign officials based in the capital of Kyiv, 300 miles away, they struggle to get attention on their work. “Local problems are best dealt with by local organizations, and there is much more we want to do but don’t have the money for” said Evgeniia. “Although we get support from the Ukrainian diaspora, we spend a lot of time applying for grants, and reporting back to donors. It’s frustrating, the level of bureaucracy.”
Among other things, CodeIT4Life provides safe spaces for children to meet and play. At the June 2026 Eurochild conference held in Cyprus, international experts identified as a priority for Ukrainian adolescents the need to “create safe spaces for children to express themselves and share experiences.”
Daria Kliuieva is a family and school psychologist, specializing in child and adolescent mental health and psychological support for children affected by stress and trauma. She said the most common mental health problems among children in Kharkiv and across Ukraine “include anxiety disorders, depression, trauma-related symptoms such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), emotional and behavioral difficulties, and problems with social adaptation.”
She said she has observed how “many of these challenges are linked to the ongoing impact of war, displacement, chronic stress, and disruptions in everyday life. Early psychological support and timely intervention can significantly improve children’s emotional well-being and resilience.”
The safe spaces provided byCodeIT4Life, she said, “play a very important role in supporting adolescents, providing a safe, predictable, and emotionally supportive environment where young people can express themselves, build resilience, develop coping skills, and experience positive social connections.”
Ilona runs CodeIT4Life’s program providing these services to children in Kharkiv.
“Kids had two years of Covid followed by four years of war, they need places they can meet and interact. We provide such venues for children aged four to seventeen,” she said, but stresses these are not long-term solutions to mental health challenges.
“We offer temporary safe spaces where the children can learn, do art, and be with each other. It can’t solve their war-related trauma but it can support them as they grow. We know when they leave these places they return home, and to the sound of frequent air raid alarms warning that the city is about to be bombed.”
