Context

Ukraine was not prepared for russia’s large-scale military intervention in February 2022. Due to the very high costs of modern war, both Ukraine’s government and most Ukrainians have experienced a desperate need for financial, military, and humanitarian resources after the large scale invasion began. 

On February 24, Ukraine immediately started mobilising monetary and in-kind resources to address its most critical defence and humanitarian needs. In particular, the central government had increased its 2022 defence expenditures by almost 300% (it allocated over 28 billion USD for 2022 and over 24.5 billion USD for 2023). In addition, Ukrainian households and businesses have mobilised at least one billion USD. 

Ukraine also started building a wide international alliance, which would help it to stop russia’s intervention, support the war-affected populations, and get its occupied territories back. At least 50 countries committed to providing military assistance to Ukraine and more than 50 countries had provided humanitarian aid. Huge international financial, military, and humanitarian aid has been essential in augmenting Ukraine’s capability to stop russia’s intervention, cover the basic needs of Ukrainian refugees and most vulnerable social groups, and liberate about 30% of all occupied territories in 2022. 

Below is a brief overview of the major domestic and international aid channels. Its purpose is (1) to emphasise the high costs of the modern war, (2) to pay tribute to the strong national and international aid mobilisation efforts made in 2022, and describe the major channels used by individuals and organisations across the Globe to help Ukraine, and (3) to encourage further support to Ukraine defending its independence and territorial integrity. 

Domestic Aid Channels

Based on the information published by Ukraine’s news outlets and on organisational websites, in the country most financial, military, and humanitarian aid has been collected and delivered via:

• the national government and a few dozen municipalities, 
• several dozen existing Ukrainian charities and charity-like non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including those affiliated with large Ukrainian companies and international ones operating in Ukraine,
• a few non-governmental online platforms and dozens of existing and new social network-based communities, and
• hundreds of NGOs and thousands of individuals.

Ukraine’s Government

Not surprisingly, Ukraine’s national government was the largest domestic operator of financial, military, and humanitarian aid. To collect and distribute this aid, it established and/or used: 

• two special purpose central bank accounts to accumulate monetary donations for defence and humanitarian assistance (about 854 million USD in 2022),
• UNITED24, an online fundraising platform for defence, medical aid, and rebuilding efforts (collected over 250 million USD in 2022),
• Humanitarian Aid Website, an online humanitarian aid coordination and collection platform (facilitated the delivery of about 900,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 2022),
• oblast humanitarian aid collection and distribution centres,
• eDopomoga (e-Assistance), an online national platform that facilitates the provision of humanitarian assistance to the war-affected and internally displaced persons in Ukraine, 
• Prykhystok (Shelter), an online national platform that helps to find accommodation for internally displaced persons, and
• VzaemoDiia (InterAction), an information platform designed to promote electronic democracy and help Ukraine’s government and civil society coordinate their activities.

Besides, the national government involved public sector companies and institutions in collecting and/or delivering defence and/or humanitarian support including the aid provided in the form of discounts for some of their services. Two groups of large public sector companies, banks (primarily, Oschadbank and Privatbank) and delivery companies (primarily, Ukrposhta and Ukrzaliznytsia) played an especially important role in aid collection and delivery. 

Additionally, a few dozen Ukrainian municipalities established humanitarian aid centres to coordinate the distribution of humanitarian aid collected in the municipality or received from other municipalities including its sister cities, Ukraine’s national government, or international organisations.

Ukrainian Charities

The second major domestic channel of military and/or humanitarian aid was a group of Ukrainian charities that have been dealing with aid collection and provision for several years. It included unaffiliated charities and charities affiliated with large Ukrainian businesses. Many of them were able to greatly expand and extend their operations after February 24, 2022. The total amount of collected/provided aid reportedly exceeded 700 million USD.

Four unaffiliated charities that led the race and collected about 360 million USD in 2022, were:

• Come Back Alive Fund (collected over 154 million USD in 2022), 
• Serhiy Prytula Foundation (collected over 100 million USD in 2022), 
• Ukrainian Red Cross Society (facilitated the delivery of about 45,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 2022), and
• Kyiv School of Economics Foundation (collected about 39 million USD in 2022).

Other unaffiliated charities NGOs collected about 60 million USD in 2022. That group included:

• Your Support Charitable Foundation (collected about 11 million USD in 2022),
• Hope UA Charity Foundation (collected about 11 million USD in 2022), 
• The BGV Charity Fund (collected over 7.5 million USD in 2022),
• Wings of Hope Charity Foundation (collected over 5 million USD in 2022), 
• Ukrainian Catholic University (collected about 4.5 million USD in 2022), 
• Voices of Children Charitable Foundation (collected about 4 million USD in 2022), 
• Ukrainian Philanthropic Marketplace (collected about 4 million USD in 2022),
• Enjoying Life Charitable Foundation (collected about 3 million USD in 2022), 
• Army SOS NGO (collected about 2.5 million USD in 2022),
• People’s Project (collected over 2 million USD in 2022), 
• Vostok (East) SOS Charity Foundation (collected about one million USD in 2022), 
• Dobrodiy Club Charity Foundation (collected about one million USD in 2022), 
• Happy Child Charity Foundation (collected about one million USD in 2022),
• Help the Front NGO (collected about one million USD in 2022), and
• The Humanitarian Movement UAnimals (collected over one million USD in 2022).

Five leading charities that are affiliated with large Ukrainian businesses and most likely processed a significant portion of total donations made by those businesses (total donations exceeded 270 million USD in 2022), were:

• Rinat Akhmetov Foundation affiliated with System Capital Management (total donations were about 95 million USD in 2022), 
• Poroshenko Foundation affiliated with Roshen Corporation (total donations exceeded 50 million USD in 2022),
• TECHIIA Foundation affiliated with TECHIIA Holding (total donations were about 60 million USD in 2022), 
• Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Elena Pinchuk Foundation, and Revival of the Region Charity Foundation affiliated with Interpipe (total donations were about 45 million USD in 2022), and
• MHP-to-Community Charity Foundation affiliated with MHP (total donations were about 22 million USD in 2022). 

Smaller charities affiliated with large Ukrainian businesses most likely processed all or most donations made by those businesses (total donations were about 30 million USD in 2022). That group of charities included:

• The Alexey Stavnitser Charity Foundation affiliated with TIS (provided over 5.5 million USD),
• ATB Charitable Foundation affiliated with ATB Corporation (provided about 5.5 million USD),
• The Zagoriy Foundation affiliated with Darnitsa (provided over 5 million USD), 
• Boris Kolesnikov Foundation affiliated with Konti (provided over 3.5 million USD in 2022),  
• Believe in Yourself Charity Foundation affiliated with Astarta-Kyiv (provided about 3 million USD in 2022), 
• Hynansky Family Foundation affiliated with Winner Group Ukraine (provided almost 3 million USD in 2022), 
• DobroDii Charity Exchange affiliated with Concord Fintech Solutions (provided over 2 million USD in 2022), and
• Zhebrivski Family Charity Foundation affiliated with Farmak (provided over one million USD in 2022).

Online Networks and Non-governmental Platforms

The third domestic channel of military and/or humanitarian aid was formed by online networks and non-governmental platforms. In February 2022 and several weeks afterward, many Ukrainians used Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp to facilitate mobilisation and evacuation and to coordinate financial, military, and humanitarian aid in Ukraine. People also used existing and new fundraising and aid coordination platforms including –

• Common Help UA (collected about 16 million USD in 2022), 
• KOLO (collected about 4 million USD in 2022), 
• Save Ukraine (collected over 2.5 million USD in 2022),
• ShortageUA (collected about 300,000 USD in 2022),
• Dopomagai (Help), an online platform that helps to find free accommodation for refugees in Ukraine and abroad,
• Let’s Help Ukraine, an online general assistance platform for people affected by the war in Ukraine, and
• Pomich (Assistance), an online platform that facilitates the evacuation of war-affected people and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Non-governmental Organisations and Individuals

The fourth domestic channel of military and/or humanitarian aid was formed by hundreds of NGOs and thousands of individuals who utilised their experience and diverse contacts to coordinate military and humanitarian aid as well as assistance provided by volunteers. Those organisations and individuals often focused their efforts on helping specific military unit(s) and/or social group(s). Good examples were NGOs and groups of volunteers registered with an aid search online platform Palyanytsya.info and the volunteer search online platform Volunteers in Ukraine designed and operated by the Ukrainian Volunteer Service.

(to be continued …)