February 24, 2023, marks the first anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The war unleashed the largest humanitarian and refugee crises in Europe since the Second World War. Ukrainian civil society, volunteer networks, and local officials rose to the challenge and mounted one of the most effective homegrown humanitarian relief efforts in history. In the months that followed, international aid organizations scaled up a massive humanitarian operation alongside the Ukrainian effort.
As the international response took shape, it began to crowd out what Ukrainian civil society and local officials had achieved. By the summer of 2022, Ukrainian and international organizations, including Refugees International, specifically warned that the failure to give Ukrainians greater control over international aid flowing into their country undercuts the effectiveness of the relief effort. It also squanders an important opportunity to implement reforms and power shifts long called for across the aid sector.