Countries
Oselya’s resistance in the face of war in Ukraine
The full-scale war began four years ago, with Russia relentlessly bombing the Ukrainian population.
Our friends at Emmaus Oselya have been standing firm for four years, and are continuing to help the most vulnerable people. Yes, they are tired because their friends and family are on the frontline, in the mud and cold in the trenches, just like during World War I, because their nights are broken up by air raid sirens, just like during World War II, because they are woken by drones, which make a tractor-like noise on approach, a new act of cruelty in this particular war.
On 24 February 2022, a few hours after the invasion began, Grigory, the Emmaus national delegate in Ukraine warned us: “it’s a tragic day for Europe and the world. We need to stay united in the struggle against the madness of this dictator in power in the Kremlin.”
And we have definitely stayed united. This was reflected by over 40 communities and 50 people attending Emmaus Europe’s online Ukraine conference on 24 February 2026. And it is also borne out by the unprecedented contribution made by the Emmaus groups in Europe and around the world to our Ukraine Support Fund.
“My dream is for the war to end. Then I think life will show me the right path to take. I would like to see my children again. My oldest is in Poland, and the youngest is in Germany, just like my oldest daughter; my other daughter is in Sebastopol (in annexed Crimea), I’d like to be able to see her again.” Oleksandr O., Oselya companion during the conference.
The community has seen 29 companions leave for the front over the four years of war. Some 36 new companions have arrived from the conflict zones. They regularly remind us that where they come from, the war started in 2014, with the annexation of Crimea.
Natalia, the director of Emmaus Oselya, stressed the following point: the war is also and above all impacting civilians and children. “59,000 children have lost at least one of their parents, we are enduring air strikes, terror attacks (the latest took place in Lviv on Saturday 21 February), power cuts, and heating problems. This is our worst ever winter, but we are continuing to progress. (…) One of Oselya’s charity shops has been renovated and expanded thanks to the Ukraine Fund. We now have floor space of 124m2, enabling us to support children and elderly people, who are suffering greatly because of the war. We support 50 people a day in therapeutic workshops.” Taking care of war victims is also a form of resistance.
And continuing to dream: despite the war and more than ever before, Oselya has development plans, and ideas for improving support, recycling and better provision for vulnerable people.
Lviv military cemetery, located in the centre of the city, is the burial place for over 3,000 soldiers who have died at the front since February 2022. Nazar and Oleksii, two Oselya companions, are buried there. 29 Oselya companions are currently on the frontlines of the war. Lviv, January 2026 | © Emmanuel Rabourdin
Demonstration on 18 December 2025 in Bilbao in which Emmaus took part. The message on the umbrellas: “No human being is illegal”. | Photo credit: Emmaus Spain
Regularisation of undocumented migrants in Spain: 500,000 reasons for Emmaus to celebrate!
On 27 January the Spanish government approved a decree to regularise over 500,000 undocumented migrants. This political decision came in the wake of a citizen campaign in which Emmaus Spain was heavily involved.
The account provided by Rosa Gil, the leader of Emmaus Bilbao, gives us all hope:
The Emmaus groups in Spain are celebrating. A civic legislative proposal calling for the exceptional regularisation of hundreds of thousands of migrants has been adopted. We can draw a key lesson from this collective campaign, in which we played an active part: local community organisations are capable of transforming reality and opening up gaps in systems that had previously seemed unbreachable.
The struggle got underway in 2020 when over 120 civil society organisations sent a letter to the Spanish government calling for an urgent and exceptional regularisation. At the time, it was estimated that close to 800,000 people were surviving in Spain without fundamental rights, and were trapped by their irregular administrative status. Hundreds of people protested outside the Spanish Parliament to call for a debate. However, the proposal was rejected in September of that year. Even the Socialist Party, which was already in power, made use of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum to vote against the proposal.
Far from giving up, the Regularización Ya (Regularise Now!) platform turned to the European Parliament; it confirmed that there were no legal barriers to such a measure being implemented. The next step was to arrange meetings in 2021 to launch a civic legislative proposal. This wasn’t an easy process: the proposal was rejected on several occasions until December 2021, when the official collection of signatures began. A national campaign was launched in January 2022. The campaign mobilised hundreds of collectives and volunteers. At the same time, over 80 motions of support were endorsed by local councils and the Basque Parliament.
Over 700,000 signatures were handed to the Spanish Parliament in December 2022, well over the minimum required level of 500,000. Finally, in April 2024, the civic legislative proposal was placed on the parliamentary agenda, with 310 votes for, and 33 against, the latter being cast by the far right. Following months of political deadlock, the initiative finally came to fruition thanks to pressure from Podemos, a small yet highly combative political party.
It is true that there was political will once we reached the home straight, including from the incumbent socialist government, but none of this would have been possible without social pressure. At a historic time when fascism, racism and indifference to human suffering are all gaining ground, the grassroots community movement demonstrated its transforming power.
We are celebrating today, but we are also making a new commitment: informing, supporting and making all of our resources available to this regularisation process so that nobody is left on the sidelines. Solidarity and the defence of human rights are upheld through collective effort. Only together can we counteract the discourse that is trying to make us forget that at some point in time, we were all migrants.
Food is a Human Right for All European Citizens
Emmaus Europe has joined the European Citizens’ Initiative “Food is a Human Right for All!”. The signature collection has officially opened on 7 January.
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© Emmaüs Norfolk & Waveney
Healing Trauma: Emmaus Norfolk & Waveney’s Pioneering Women’s Project
According to a study carried out by Fobbed Off, in 2021 60% of homeless adults living in temporary accommodation in England were women.
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