The conflict in Ukraine, now entering its fifth day, has been difficult to watch from the safety of Australia. Our social media and television feeds have been filled with distressing images of the violence and its effects on the ordinary people of Ukraine as Russian forces move into the country.
Like all global conflicts, it’s hard to imagine how we might make a meaningful difference to the tragedy unfolding in Eastern Europe. However, that has not stopped individuals from around the world from doing whatever they can to try and end the violence and support those in danger.
From donations to protests to calling on leaders, there is a myriad of ways that you personally can help. Here are just a few of the ways that you can make a difference right now.
What You Can Do to Help Ukraine Right Now
Russia’s unprecedented and unprovoked attack on a sovereign democratic neighbour has sparked outrage and solidarity around the world the likes of which we have not seen for years.
Donate
There are numerous charities working on the ground in Ukraine that need support.
The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, which oversees 24 Australian-Ukrainian community groups, recommends people donate to the Ukraine Crisis Appeal. This is a joint project between Caritas Ukraine and Rotary Australia World Community Service to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.
You can also donate directly to Caritas, a Catholic organisation with operations around the world, which have been working in Ukraine since 2014 to provide food, cash, and emergency shelter to those displaced by the conflict.
Voices of Children is a Ukrainian children’s charity working to provide psychological support to young people affected by war in the region. Based in the occupied Donetsk region, the team employ psychologists and art therapy to help manage trauma.
Save the Children are, naturally, also working to help young people in Ukraine, and have launched a special drive to support children in the ongoing conflict through the distribution of blankets, medicine, and hygiene kits both in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries refugees are fleeing to.
The Ukrainian Red Cross is currently taking donations from abroad to provide blood donations, volunteers, and resources on the ground.
CARE Australia is also working directly with Ukrainian partners, People in Need, to supply humanitarian assistance to those in the conflict zones as well as those who have fled the country.
The Ukrainian government have also opened a special bank account to accept foreign donations that will go directly to financing the armed forces of Ukraine if you are that way inclined. The account accepts donations in Ukrainian hryvnia as well as British pounds, US dollars, Euros, and Australian dollars.
Cryptocurrency Donations
Arguably what cryptocurrency was built for, people across the world have been donating their crypto to the cause as payment networks freeze finances coming into and out of Ukraine.
Cryptocurrency analysts have confirmed that at least US $13.7 million has been donated to the Ukrainian war effort through anonymous Bitcoin donations to NGOs and volunteer groups. One donor gave $3 million worth of Bitcoin in a single go. Just be careful who you send money to online as scams have been reported.
Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT.
BTC – 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P
ETH and USDT (ERC-20) – 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022
Protest
From Chile to South Africa, to Japan, massive anti-war protests have taken place against Russia across the planet.
Thousands have already taken to the streets in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne, calling on Australian politicians to do more to sanction Russia and support Ukraine.
There will likely be more upcoming protests planned if the situation is prolonged. Many of these protests were organized last minute, so it’s worth keeping an eye on Facebook events near you to find out if more are happening. If not, you can always start one yourself.
Contact Your Representatives
You can contact your Senator and your Federal Member of Parliament as well as state parliament members and tell them to increase sanctions on Russia as well as support more financial and military aid to Ukraine.
Australia buys a small fraction of its crude oil from Russia, so it’s worth mentioning that you would like this to stop, both for the health of the planet as well as the limiting of financial resources for Russia.
Sign Petitions
There are a number of global as well as local petitions currently gaining signatures that aim to address some of the current issues.
This petition to Scott Morrison is calling for a special humanitarian visa pathway to be established for Ukrainians fleeing conflict coming to Australia.
This one, more vaguely, is calling on world business leaders to stop business transactions with Russian companies and the funding of Russian economic ventures.
World Beyond War has also started a petition to NATO leaders calling for a de-escalation of events and the limiting of nuclear options in the conflict.
Support Ukrainian Free Press
Ukrainian journalists are working hard to cover events on the ground in the country as Russia launches a massive disinformation campaign to obscure and hide its military actions. The New Voice of Ukraine and The Kyiv Independent are two such publications.
You can support their work by reading and sharing their stories and also find more Ukrainian journalists here.
Just be extremely careful about what you share as there are many images and videos out there that claim to show events in Ukraine currently that are either fake or out of date.
Volunteer for the Ukrainian Army
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, has issued an unprecedented call out to foreigners, asking them to join the Ukrainian army on a volunteer basis.
Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries. Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022
A special division has been created for foreigners who wish to fight, echoing the call to arms given by the Spanish Republicans in the 1930s during which many from across Europe, including a young George Orwell, joined the war against the fascist Spanish Nationalists.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned Australians that travel to Ukraine is explicitly advised against and that joining the war may not be legally justifiable.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has however said that she would “absolutely” support UK citizens who went to join the conflict.
The Guardian has reported that some 22,000 people have crossed the border into Ukraine from Poland, with Ukrainians living elsewhere in Europe returning home to defend their country.
Hack the Russian Government
The online hacker-activist group Anonymous have launched a cyber campaign against Russian and Belarusian state actors, claiming to be responsible for the outages of Russian government websites over the weekend.
#Anonymous have ongoing operations to keep .ru government websites offline, and to push information to the #Russian people so they can be free of Putin's state censorship machine.
We also have ongoing operations to keep the #Ukrainian people online as best we can.🇺🇦— Anonymous🇬🇧 (@AnonymousUK2022) February 27, 2022
While the group is largely an informal collection of hackers working under the Anonymous banner, they have supposedly brought down the Russia Today website, the official Kremlin website, and the Russian Ministry of Defence site.
Russian state TV channels have also reportedly been hacked to display pro-Ukrainian content and images of the invasion.
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