--- title: Olena Shevchenko on Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable description: Since co-founding a nonprofit to support women and LGBTQI groups, Shevchenko has become one of the most recognizable advocates in Ukraine. canonical: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-03-02T11:00:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:25:06.116Z article:section: World og:title: Olena Shevchenko on Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable og:description: Russia's war in Ukraine has made the work of LGBTQI and women's rights advocates even more difficult, Shevchenko says og:url: https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Olena Shevchenko on Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Olena Shevchenko on Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable twitter:description: Russia's war in Ukraine has made the work of LGBTQI and women's rights advocates even more difficult, Shevchenko says twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- Mar 02, 2023 # Olena Shevchenko Is Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable People > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Women of the Year | Olena Shevchenko [Watch (HLS stream): Women of the Year | Olena Shevchenko](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/axcjKBDb.m3u8) (5:03)  _Published 2023-03-02. Olena Shevchenko Is Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable People_ by [Dayana Sarkisova](https://time.com/author/dayana-sarkisova/) ## Dayana Sarkisova Sarkisova is a senior editor at TIME.  Olena Shevchenko photographed during a remote portrait session in February 2023. Olena Shevchenko photographed during a remote portrait session in February 2023.Dina Litovsky for TIME On an April 2022 afternoon, nearly two months into the war in Ukraine, Olena Shevchenko’s altruism was met with brutality. As she unloaded supplies from Poland to be distributed around a war-torn Kyiv, a man caught her off guard. Attacking her with pepper spray, he screamed, “Pervert, get out of our city!” Shevchenko, 40, is no stranger to this kind of hostility. Since she co-founded the Kyiv-based nonprofit Insight in 2017 to support women and [LGBTQI communities](https://time.com/6156672/lgbtq-ukraine-refugees-russia/), she’s become one of the most recognizable advocates in Ukraine, and has been attacked seven times in the past five years. Before the war, her initiatives were often met with resistance; nowadays, she finds getting people to understand her mission is even more complicated.  Olena Shevchenko photographed during a remote portrait session in February 2023.Dina Litovsky for TIME “Why are you talking just about women? Why not men? Why not everybody?” she says, outlining the arguments she regularly encounters. The reality, she says, is that these communities are especially vulnerable during the war: [LGBTQI people](https://time.com/6156672/lgbtq-ukraine-refugees-russia/) face fierce discrimination from fellow Ukrainians; most humanitarian aid doesn’t account for [those with disabilities](https://time.com/6161800/disabled-refugees-ukraine/); and “the level of [sexual violence](https://time.com/6168330/rape-war-crime-russia-ukraine/) during the war—you can’t imagine.” **Read More:** [_Inside the Basement Where a Ukrainian Village Spent a Month in Captivity_](https://time.com/6255183/ukraine-basement-yahidne-held-captive/) Shevchenko [and her colleagues](https://time.com/spirit-of-ukraine-person-of-the-year-2022/) have pivoted their efforts to fundraising—acquiring everything from first-aid kits to hormones for transgender people. She estimates that in 2022, they collected more than $400,000 from various donors and campaigns. Shevchenko says that conservative groups in Ukraine often accuse LGBTQI people of fleeing, claiming “they are not protecting the country, they are not helping here in Ukraine.” Her goal is therefore to show that these communities are very active “on different front lines. Not just military ones, but in other spheres.” The gender stereotypes she’s worked tirelessly to combat over the years have also taken on another dimension during the conflict. Women have [assumed a variety of roles](https://time.com/6159261/women-ukraine-war-russia/) in war efforts outside the home, including volunteer work and military service. “It’s a daily fight,” she says. “You need to remind people that women are not people who just need to give birth to new soldiers and take care of our heroes.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/"},"headline":"Olena Shevchenko Is Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable People","datePublished":"2023-03-02T11:00:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:25:06.116Z","description":"Since co-founding a nonprofit to support women and LGBTQI groups, Shevchenko has become one of the most recognizable advocates in Ukraine.","url":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/","keywords":["Ukraine","franchise","Magazine","womenoftheyear"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dayana Sarkisova","jobTitle":"Sarkisova is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/dayana-sarkisova/"}],"creator":"Dayana Sarkisova","articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ukraine/","name":"Ukraine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/","name":"Olena Shevchenko Is Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable People"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Women of the Year | Olena Shevchenko","description":"Olena Shevchenko Is Fighting for Ukraine's Most Vulnerable People","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/axcjKBDb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-03-02T10:30:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/axcjKBDb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/","duration":"PT5M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/6257849/olena-shevchenko-2/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```