Research design and methodology

This study included both desk research and qualitative fieldwork . Desk research was carried out between March 15 and March 31, 2021, and consisted of: a) review of current gender commitments, policies, laws and regulations in Ukraine, and their potential impact on men and women in frontline communities; b) review of prior sociological research and analytic reports on frontline communities in the Donbas region; c) search of statistical data and other relevant information related to the communities in the current case study, to identify gaps in available information to be filled during fieldwork .

Fieldwork was initially planned in all three sites in April, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and aggravation of the security situation at the border with Russia in April 2021, two local consultants from Caritas (site 2 and site 3) discouraged the researcher from visiting the sites, insisting on conducting research online . Fieldwork to site 1 was possible on April 22 with a focus-group in Novobakhmutivka, inspection of available infrastructure in two villages, and face-to-face interviews with social and healthcare workers and NGO leaders/facilitators . Two more focus groups were conducted online with respondents from site 2 and site 3 . After COVID-19 and safety restrictions were lifted, offline visits were organized to site 2 and site 3 on June 8 and 9, with one additional focus group in site 2, and three additional focus groups in site 3 . Average duration of focus-groups was around 75-80 minutes, average number of participants in each focus group was 8-9 participants . There was one focus group with members of local government (military-civil administration, probation services, territorial centre for social service provision, etc) in site 3, four mixed focus groups with active residents, social workers and project beneficiaries (two in site 2, one in sites 1 and 3 each), one focus group with elderly beneficiaries (site 3), one focus group with Caritas social workers (site 3) . Technical difficulties in connecting to skype/zoom and poor quality of internet signal in some of the locations, posed one of the limitations of the online format, but it was beyond researcher’s control4 .

Additionally, 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted by phone and offline during site visits . Among respondents were beneficiaries of Caritas-run projects in the three sites (seven women and four men, including the elderly, people with disabilities, single mothers and IDPs), as well as key informants employed in social and administrative service provision in communities (seven women and three men, including nurses and family doctor, Caritas and municipal social workers, and local council representative) .

All phone interviews and all three focus groups were recorded and transcribed (for the face-to-face interaction during field visit to Site 1 that occurred without a recording device, field notes were immediately taken that same evening with respondents’ comments recorded from memory) . Key themes were identified, and answers were grouped to reflect the following themes: socio-economic context (including economic, spatial

4 One of the challenges encountered in the data collection process, consisted in the difficulty of accessing elderly beneficiaries for focus groups and interviews . Even where fieldwork with face-to-face interaction was possible (as in Site 1), visits to the home of elderly beneficiaries were prohibited, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to this vulnerable group . The elderly also had difficulty connecting to skype/zoom for focus groups (each focus group had only one elderly participant), and some of them had difficulty hearing as I attempted to contact them via phone . One suggestion for future studies would be in engaging Caritas social workers to administer short questionnaires during home visits to their beneficiaries . However, for the purposes of our study, this extra step was not necessary, as answers obtained from the few elderly participants combined with other sources of information were sufficient in answering our research questions .

and social isolation of frontline communities, as well as employment and entrepreneurship opportunities), manifestations of vulnerability (including both personal and infrastructural dimensions, as well as COVIDrelated vulnerabilities), and gender inequalities in target project areas . Although qualitative methodology applied in this research is not representative, its validity and reliability is affirmed by comparing findings to previous studies and relevant theoretical work .