Ivano-Frankivsk – “Legally, it’s like I don’t exist. It’s as though I have just fallen from the sky,” says 31-year-old Ievhen, sitting with his partner and two children in a tiny dormitory room in Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine, where they recently moved.

Born in the Russian Federation, Ievhen grew up in several orphanages across Ukraine because his mother had been deprived of parental rights and his father had died at an early age. The birth certificates of his children, Milana and Ievhen Junior, are the only official documents where his name is mentioned.

Due to his complicated upbringing, Ievhen has never been able to get a passport or access many of his rights: to have an education, get a decent job, officially marry his partner Marharyta, open a bank account, or receive state benefits – which he should now be entitled to as an internally displaced person.

While living in this legal limbo was already difficult enough for Ievhen before the war started, the current situation has made it even worse.