February 24, 2026 marks four years since Russian forces launched their full-scale ground invasion of Ukraine. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) spoke with Anastasiya Marchuk, Head of Mission for Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) in Ukraine, about what the organization’s work looks like on the ground and why nonviolent action in times of war matters.
The Scale of the Crisis in 2026
As of 2026, an estimated 17.6 million people in Ukraine — roughly 40% of the country — need humanitarian assistance of some kind. More than 5 million Ukrainians remain internally displaced, and another 8 million have become refugees abroad. There have been an estimated 500,000 Ukrainian troop casualties thus far in the war. In 2025 alone, there were an estimated 45,195 civilian casualties. Despite growing international pressure for a resolution, peace negotiations remain stalled, with no clear path to a ceasefire currently.
As Anastasiya told FCNL, the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) team in Ukraine goes home each night to apartments without reliable heat or electricity. Their office — powered by its own generator — offers a hot meal, a shower, and a moment to breathe amidst their important work: “They call it their fortress.”
Empowering the People Already Showing Up
NP is an international NGO whose mission is to protect civilians in violent conflicts through unarmed strategies and by building peace side-by-side with local communities. In 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion, NP embedded directly in frontline communities across Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson.
NP’s work in Ukraine is built around a core conviction: the people best positioned to protect their communities are often already doing it. The team in Ukraine’s job is to make sure these community leaders have the tools and knowledge to keep doing this work safely and effectively.
Since the invasion, ordinary Ukrainians have mobilized in extraordinary ways. For example, fishermen have begun delivering humanitarian supplies and a theater troupe that grew from 10 to over 300 volunteers is now running aid operations. While international organizations have largely withdrawn from the highest-risk frontline areas, these local networks have stayed. In the first year, NP supported 13 volunteer collectives that reached over 47,000 community members through aid distributions. In 2026, NP is partnerships with over 80 local civil society organizations.
Responding in Real Time
Over the last four years, NP’s support has evolved to meet emerging needs on the ground. The first priority was closing the most glaring gap, physical protection. NP provides their local partners with a comprehensive “Duty of Care” package: ballistic vests and helmets, emergency funding for fuel and stipends, well as life insurance, psychosocial support, and first aid training. In several cases NP has even provided armored vehicles for civilian evacuations. The goal is to give people who mobilized as ordinary citizens the same basic protections that established international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) typically have.
The next need was preparedness. Working with local leaders near the front lines, NP developed leaflets to help citizens prepare to evacuate, covering essential documents, medications, and what people are most likely to forget in a crisis. In this process, one community suggestion stood out: include a waterproof document envelope with each leaflet, giving people something tangible to do in preparation rather than just a list of things to fear.
Most recently, NP has turned to the deadliest new threat: drones. Attacks on humanitarian operations escalated from 31 incidents in 2022 to over 26,000 by the end of 2025, including attacks on clearly marked humanitarian vehicles. NP’s response has been to offer drone awareness training and distribute frequency analyzers, passive devices that scan for drone signals and deliver real-time alerts without jamming or transmitting data, preserving humanitarian neutrality under international law. In Kupiansk, for one example, a frequency analyzer enabled a humanitarian evacuation team to detect an incoming drone, get their team and civilians to safety, and prevent casualties.
Moving Forward
Ukraine’s resilience is real but finite. When the fighting stops, new challenges await, including traumatized veterans, strained communities, and political tensions that war has only delayed. The U.S. Congress and the administration should continue to pursue a negotiated peace through nonviolent means, including robust humanitarian aid, war crimes accountability, human-centered security, and long-term economic stability. While FCNL continues to build support for peace through peaceful means in Washington, DC, NP will continue to provide non-violent support to Ukrainians on the ground.
Learn more about Nonviolent Peaceforce’s work in Ukraine. Learn more about FCNL’s work on Ukraine at fcnl.org/ukraine.
