On Thursday, February 24, 2022, Russia openly invaded Ukraine and started a full-scale war. This act of barbarism put 40 million Ukrainian lives in danger. If you feel that you cannot passively observe, but you want to do something, here are some ideas. This is a subjective list of actions. Even though they initially come from social media, I did my best to verify them before posting. Nevertheless, it is up to you which action you will take.
- Refugees. In the first two days of invasion 100 000 refugees from Ukraine have crossed Polish border. It is a huge number. Some of them do not have a place to go, to sleep, food, clothes etc. You can share your house, spare some money or everyday things directly to the refugees or through some organized collections. Currently, there are many of them in big cities of the region. Try to find one that is close to you.
Compendium of initiatives in Poland by Piotr Nabielec - http://jakmogepomocukrainie.pl/
Polish initiatives list by itcanhelp - https://www.itcanhelp.org/ - Charity. You can donate some money or everyday things through charities like:
Red Cross Ukraine https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/
International Red Cross https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/ukraine
Internation Rescue Committee https://www.rescue.org/
CARE https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?df_id=31071&mfc_pref=T&31071.donation=form1&s_src=172220UCFM00&s_subsrc=FY22UkraineCrisisFundMO
International Medical Corps https://give.internationalmedicalcorps.org/page/99837/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=DP~UA22~DPLBU2202&_ga=2.219856017.925978408.1645809447-2121177257.1645809447 - Boycott Russian goods. War is expensive. Russia needs a lot of money for their military actions. The less money they have, the more difficult is to continue the war. Avoid buying products that come from Russia. Read the labels or barcodes. Barcode numbers that start from 460-469 are assigned to Russian products.
- Fight with desinformation. You can find some fake news on social media spread by Russian bots, fake accounts or even real people trying to convince other people to fake news about the war. Most social media platform have tools that allow you to report such activites:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/37822/recognize-and-report-spam-inappropriate-and-abusive-content?lang=en
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/help/572838089565953 - Share your support to Ukraine on social media. Don't be put off by those who say it doesn't matter whether you share the news from Ukraine on your Facebook wall or not. It does matter. Russian propaganda tries to convince Russian citizens that it is not a war but a small-scale operation without civil victims. If you share the news, your Russian connections may see it, share further, and further, and further. The more Russians see what is really going on, the less support will Putin have.
- Agitate for cutting Russia of the SWIFT banking system. SWIFT is used for international money transfers. When Russia gets excluded from it, they will loose a huge ton of money that they currently spend on military activities in Ukraine. How can you agitate? Talk to your local politics, participate in protests, sign petitions.
- Donate to support Ukrainian Armed Forces. National Bank of Ukraine opened a special account for that purpose - https://ukraine.ua/news/donate-to-the-nbu-fund/
- Join #TechForUkraine initiative. Are you an IT professional? You can help in the area of your expertise by dedicating your time and tech skills to non-profit organizations helping in Ukraine - https://www.techtotherescue.org/tech/tech-for-ukraine
- Close the airspace over Ukraine. If the airspace was closed, dropping bombs from aircrafts would be impossible. That would help saving lives and the country. Sign the petition - https://www.openpetition.eu/petition/online/people-around-the-world-ask-nato-to-close-the-airspace-over-ukraine. It is more like just a gesture but you never know, currently over 600 000 people signed it.
