Abstract:  Care for older people in Ukraine is an “unpromising domain” of social policy, situated at the bottom of care hierarchies and systematically marginalized through chronic underfunding, weak institutional development, and political invisibility. The provision of care for older adults has been shaped by long‐term demographic aging, neoliberal reforms, and a strongly familialistic care regime, and it relies predominantly on families operating within a fragmented and poorly regulated landscape. Russia’s full‐scale invasion in 2022 has resulted in another devastating blow to structural conditions, not only further destabilizing care infrastructures but also disrupting informal networks of support, rupturing family ties, and deepening inequalities in access to care. In this article, we situate current arrangements within a longer historical trajectory from the Soviet period through to the post‐independence reforms. Relying on statistical data, policy analysis, and 40 in‐depth interviews, we trace how the deprioritization of care for older persons—that is, its decentralization, marketization, and a shift to residual public provision—has produced a fragmented continuum of care rather than a coherent care regime. The war is acting as an amplifier rather than representing a rupture; it is magnifying existing deficits and increasing reliance on unstable ad hoc solutions. These dynamics are profoundly gendered, with middle‐aged and older women bearing disproportionate responsibility for both unpaid and low‐paid care labor. We argue that the persistent framing of care for older people as an unpromising policy domain risks reproducing its marginalization in the postwar reconstruction.

Keywords:  care for older people; familialism; gendered care labor; neoliberalism; social policy; Ukraine; war

Published:   3 June 2026

Issue:   Vol 14 (2026): Transnational Organization of Labour, Mobility, and Senior Care in Central and Eastern Europe (In Progress)