Two years after invasion, Respond’s Ukrainian translators help hundreds of Ukrainian asylum seekers, organizations

February 24, 2024, marked two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Respond Crisis Translation’s Ukrainian and Russian (UA RU) Languages Team has been working around the clock since the invasion to support Ukrainian people fighting for their lives and freedom.

Since the beginning of the invasion, the Respond UA RU Languages Team translated and interpreted for 896 refugee and asylum cases, helping 1,413 Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers fleeing to different countries. This included translating all types of documents, including medical, legal, education, registration, and housing-related materials in Ukrainian and Russian to English, German, French, Polish, Check, Slovakian, Spanish. 

Among these, we contributed to 78 medical cases, which were primarily cases for terminally ill patients. Often, these medical documents are a mix of Ukrainian and Russian languages, including medical terminology, and contain doctors handwriting – to translate these accurately is a difficult task requiring immense skill and competence. Our team also provided psychological interpretations and translated documents for organizations working with the refugees in the area of mental health.

Respond is proud to work with 13 Ukrainian organizations in Ukraine working to rebuild and support the most impacted communities on the frontline. Two such organizations include:

Heroic Ukraine: Heroic Ukraine is an Ukrainian charity organization that advocates for democratic values and defends Ukraine's sovereignty against Russian aggression. Our team transcribed, translated, and created English subtitles for a Youtube documentary about Heroic Ukraine's activities in Ukraine that provides a glimpse into the organization’s inspiring work. Our team was honored to be a part of the project and to work alongside such a passionate team.

Bazis School: Respond’s UA RU Languages Team translated into Ukrainian the standards for Cambridge examinations for the Ukrainian school Bazis. This allows the school students to qualify to enter Cambridge based on the school exams. The book contained complex graphs and designs that had to be maintained in translation, and our team not only did the translation, but also did the final formatting and design for printing. Under a very short deadline and with a limited budget, Respond’s UA RU Languages Team completed the project in 14 days. We were happy to support the Ukrainian School that continues providing quality education under constant air alerts in Kyiv.

This project is prominent because it is for the Ukrainian children, who are most affected by the war. They are the future of a rebuilt Ukraine and a new democratic world. They have been the focus of Russian totalitarian regime killings – Putin himself was issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children and unlawful transfer of children to the Russian Federation. According to UN reports as of January 2024, 1800 Ukrainian kids have been killed and injured by the Russian regime.

Other organizations the Respond UA RU Languages Team has worked with include our partner PRO PM. We transcribed, translated, and created chronological text for Ukrainian subtitles for its YouTube video about a case study on quickly and efficiently rebuilding destroyed cities. We also translated written materials for the Association of Architects of Ukraine to rebuild Ukraine. We have worked with Smirnovy, which provides psychological support for Ukrainian veterans and civilians. We created English subtitles for their YouTube documentary, an interview with “Ukrainian Viktor Frankl” Oleksandr Pipenko, who survived six months in Russian captivity and returned home to Ukraine after an exchange of prisoners.  

The Respond UA RU Languages Team has been active in supporting Russian dissidents, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, and others. We have provided language assistance to asylum seekers from Russia who were not afraid to speak up against the Russian totalitarian regime.  We translated 460 asylum cases and provided language assistance to 822 asylum seekers directly for individuals seeking asylum in the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina via translation of documents and hours of interpretation. 

We continue to assist LGBTQ+ asylum seekers fleeing Russia after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that expanded a ban on so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia, making it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.” Respond worked with LGBTQ+ asylees directly and via partner organizations like Transgender Law Center and Border Butterflies Project to translate 85 LGBTQ+ Asylum cases.

Respond interpreted the webinar for Russian LGBT+ asylum seekers fleeing to Argentina through the partner organization Fundacion Amal Argentina, provided interviews interpretation and documents translation. 

Respond Crisis Translation Ukrainian Russian Team assisted other individuals in crisis and organizations in 20 language pairings. Our team covers Eastern European and post-Soviet countries' languages:

Ukrainian - English, Ukrainian - German, Ukrainian - Polish, Ukrainian - French, Ukrainian - Czech, Ukrainian - Spanish, Russian - English, Russian - German, Russian - French, Russian - Spanish, Russian - Norwegian, Russian Sign Language (RSL) - American Sign Language (ASL), Belorussian - English, Polish - English, Georgian - English, Lithuanian - English, Latvian - English, Chechen - English, Kyrgiz - English