JDC aid workers wrap a blanket around Ella Varshavaskaya, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photo: Arik Shraga

Jews in war-torn Ukraine will remain there for the “long haul,” according to a leading official with a Jewish humanitarian organization providing aid to the Jewish and broader community in the country.

“I have been traveling extensively around the country the last week and one truth becomes abundantly clear: the majority of the Jews are here for the long haul,”  Oksana Galkevich — Ukraine country director for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) — told The Algemeiner in an email on Friday.

“They are not abandoning their homes and their communities, and even though they may be in distress, they want to live life to the fullest,” Galkevich observed. “This means that every life we save, every family we sustain, and every aspect of Jewish life we preserve and magnify becomes a gift whose returns are tenfold.”

Galkevich sounded a rare note of hope in a war that shows little sign of resolution as it approaches its second anniversary on Feb. 24. According to UN figures, at least 30,000 Ukrainians have been killed during the Russian invasion, although independent assessments suggest that the true number is much higher. Up to 70,000 Ukrainian troops are believed to have lost their lives in their efforts to repel the Russian onslaught.

Galkevich noted that while “spirits in the Jewish community are not high as they once were, especially as this conflict grinds on for a second year, people are resolute that life must continue. Yes, it’s getting harder for people – the economy is crippled, people are traumatized, and uncertainty grows – but they are not giving up.” Prior to the invasion — according to research by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), a London-based think tank — Ukraine had a “core” Jewish population of 40,000, while approximately 190,000 Ukrainian nationals are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return on the grounds of having at least one Jewish grandparent.

The JDC is meanwhile boosting its aid effort in Ukraine, as well as to the more than 13,000 Ukrainian Jewish refugees scattered around Europe.

“Even as we address multiple global crises, including the ongoing war in Israel, we remain laser focused on the dire humanitarian situation in Ukraine. These needs are all the more painful with widespread trauma, spiking unemployment, and serious gaps in children’s education,” JDC CEO Ariel Zwang said in a statement to mark the forthcoming second anniversary of the invasion. “I am proud of all the people we have helped in the past two years, but our work is nowhere near complete.”