A charity founder who has assisted the vulnerable in Ukraine for over two decades has said that the horror of what she has seen on her current humanitarian mission to the country will never leave her.
Fiona Corcoran, of the Cork-based Greater Chornobyl Cause, established her charity in 2002 to assist all those who were left devastated by the ongoing consequences of the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine.
Over the years, Corcoran expanded her mission to provide critical support to orphans, the elderly and those in need in Ukraine, Kazahstan and Russia.
She is currently in the “battered heart of Ukraine” in the small town of Vyshneve outside Kyiv.
Earlier this month, a Russian strike on the town hit a warehouse containing arms, setting off a series of secondary explosions. Ten people were killed, and hundreds of houses were seriously damaged or destroyed.
“The horror of what I have seen will never leave me. In Vyshneve, homes are not just damaged—they are obliterated, reduced to twisted remnants, the skeletal remains of what once sheltered generations. The gardens still grow, mocking the destruction, a stubborn echo of life amid carnage.
“I met Lena, whose beloved mother was slaughtered in the bombings, and her husband Igor, who tries to be strong for her though he is shattered by loss. Together they smashed down their burning door, fleeing with their 16-year-old son—his body spared, but his spirit scarred forever.”
Fiona Corcoran (left) and Lena (right), who recently lost her mother following a Russian strike on Vyshneve.
Corcoran said she stood at the Kvadrat shopping mall, once alive with shoppers, “now a blackened skeleton”.
“Its clock will forever mark the hour of obliteration, when Russian missiles and drones ravaged it in the dead of night. The building is a tomb of hope.
“Then I came to the Lukianivskyi Market, once the beating heart of the community – a place of pride, tradition, and survival. Stallholders whose families have traded there for generations now set up makeshift stalls outside the charred ruins, the air heavy with the stench of burnt debris and sour milk.
“They stand in the open, exposed to the elements and to danger, surrounded by the ashes of their past. Their stalls, their livelihoods, their histories—swept away in a single act of aggression.
“I speak with these market people—men and women who have lost not only their trade but their loved ones, killed in the very spaces they once called home and work. One stallholder tells me, through tears, how his daughter and son-in-law died in a bombardment that came before dawn, leaving no time even to scream.”
Corcoran admits that she is “deeply afraid” for Ukrainians who wake each day in terror, never knowing “if this day will be their last.”
Meanwhile, the charity head has also spent time in Ivanhiv, a community less than 60kms from Chornobyl. She says that the needs of the people of the area “are greater than ever”.
“Among the most deeply affected are the elderly—those who have already survived the horrors of Chornobyl and now endure the suffering of a new and relentless war. The desperate need for care cannot be overstated. Our only inpatient facility is overwhelmed—just 30 beds for a region with more than 6,000 elderly people and 3,000 with disabilities.”
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Corcoran says that through collective support, they have brought hope and relief to many.
“This generosity has enabled us to provide specialised beds, disability aids, therapy equipment, essential furniture, kitchen equipment, and a continuous supply of food, clothing, and hygiene products. Most crucially, support has made it possible for us to acquire an ambulance – a lifeline that allows us to transport patients to the capital for the advanced care they so desperately need.”
She adds that the need is growing more urgent by the day.
Donations can be made to the Greater Chernobyl Cause
