Emerging stronger: Ukraine’s women lawyers
The morning of February 24 began as an ordinary day for IP attorneys Julia Semeniy and Yuliya Prokhoda, with planned court hearings, client meetings and routine school runs in Ukraine.
But when Russia began its onslaught on the country, in an act of internationally condemned aggression, their lives changed dramatically.
Speaking from Kyiv, Prokhoda, CEO, patent and trademark attorney at Intels IP, outlines the tumultuous events that have upended her life and placed her family in constant danger.
“From that day in February, we were subjected to massive shellings, missiles, bombs throughout all of Ukraine. And now we still face missiles here in Kyiv: nobody can predict when the next missiles will arrive,” she says.
The war represents the biggest threat to peace and security in Europe since the end of the Cold War and has created a humanitarian disaster, killing thousands and forcing millions from their homes.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than seven million refugees had fled Ukraine by the end of May, of which around 90% were women and children. The conflict has also set the global economy on a course of slower growth and rising inflation, at critical levels not seen since the 1970s.
A spirit of endurance
For Prokhoda, the outbreak of war has dealt severe personal blows. When Russia invaded, her husband was on a business trip in Eastern Ukraine, where he decided to join the army and he now continues to fight. To the devastation of Prokhoda’s daughter, Oksana, her son-in-law, a finance student aged just 20, also joined the army and was critically injured in a Russian attack.
“He’s in hospital in a deep coma and on a ventilator with a serious brain stem injury. We are there with him daily. And we still have no prognosis for his future; every day he is struggling for his life. It is a terrible time for us, and especially so for Oksana,” she says. “I just don’t understand how this could happen in Ukraine in the 21st century.”
“We continue our regular work and have done our best to respect IP deadlines, even if air sirens sound every hour, day and night.” - Yuliya Prokhoda, Intels IP
Despite this adversity and heavy toll, she has carried on working, sometimes in unimaginably difficult circumstances.
“We continue our regular work and have done our best to respect IP deadlines, even if air sirens sound every hour, day and night,” she says.
“Just the other day, I was in a court hearing, and there was an air siren that stopped the proceedings. Together with the judges, we went to the shelter while the danger posed by the missiles continued. Afterwards, we returned and carried on. And sometimes that can happen three or four times per hearing, it depends.”
On another harrowing occasion, a missile hit the building next to the hospital where her son-in-law was being treated, causing numerous fatalities.
“I was sitting with my daughter in the hospital for three days with our boy, during which we were assailed by missiles with awful consequences,” recalls Prokhoda. “There were six victims and a lot of young people were injured. But we stayed on with him in the hospital because he cannot be moved, and we had few defences against another strike.”
Tough decisions
Semeniy, who is a partner at Asters IP, has also faced stark challenges. After the invasion, she made the tough choice to leave her country and relocate to Croatia, with her eight-year-old son.
By doing so, she left behind many members of her family, including her elderly father who chose to continue working in Ukraine. “There are complications and challenges for those who have left,” she reflects, adding that the experience has been especially tough for her young son.
“It has been a traumatic time. He has been forced to encounter completely new people in an entirely different place, where he has no friends. It is very difficult.”
