Intent.Insight told how the war affected the HIV situation in Ukraine

The beginning of winter - December 1 - is the World AIDS Day, a day of remembrance, solidarity and joint fight against HIV/AIDS.

Every week, the Intent.Insight studio discusses one of the issues that concern Ukrainians and tackles topical issues and tries to solve specific problems and questions, so this time they chose the topic of HIV.

On December 3, the guests of the studio were Oksana Tereshchenko, director of the Test & Treat clinic at the Anti-AIDS Foundation USA in Ukraine, and Yulia Kogan, a leader of the PLWH community, director of the Southern Resource Center of the All-Ukrainian Union of People with Drug Dependence, member of the Regional Policy Committee of the National Council of Ukraine on Tuberculosis and HIV.

They answered:

• How has the HIV situation in Ukraine changed in recent years?
• Which groups remain the most vulnerable now, and has this portrait changed during the war?
• What are the most critical steps to be taken by the state to prevent a setback in the fight against the epidemic?

As well as traditionally answering other questions from the audience.

According to the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, as of October 1, 133,382 people living with HIV (PLHIV) were under medical supervision in health care facilities in Ukraine. Thousands of new cases continue to be registered every year.

More than 50% of HIV cases are diagnosed at late stages, with low immunity and the development of opportunistic infections. In the first 9 months of 2025, AIDS caused the deaths of 2,578 people.

What other topics are there?

The previous episode, for example, was devoted to documenting war crimes committed by the Russian military and officials, how effective this is and whether it is possible to bring the perpetrators to justice. The guests of the studio were Borys Babin, a lawyer and expert at the Association of Crimean Integration, and Yulia Khymeryk, an investigative journalist. And on November 19, we discussed the charter with Petro Obukhov, a member of the Odesa City Council, and SerhiyBondarenko , the author of a petition to the mayor to change the charter, which received the number of votes necessary for the mayor to consider almost simultaneously with the deprivation of Hennadiy Trukhanov of Ukrainian citizenship and mayoral powers.

Кирило Бойко