Ukraine’s struggle against Russia has not become easier over time. The attacks on cities and infrastructures continue, and its people have had no chance since Russia three years ago.
And it is not easier for auxiliary groups who try to collect money to help Ukraine because it becomes more difficult to keep global attention to war.
“The willingness to donate to Ukraine has been deteriorating for many months since the war in Ukraine has become” normal “news for most people in the West,” said Vitali Olijnik, member of the Ukraine-Hilf Berlin-AID organization.
“(It will be) more and more difficult to collect donations for our projects, and it is deteriorated monthly,” he said on Friday by e -mail, on the same day when his group of Ukrainian firefighters supplies with a new fire engine.
Similar stories can be heard from groups that are based in Ukraine themselves.
“In order to increase the same amount of donations, we have to work three times as hard as in previous years,” said Serhiy Prytula, a television personality that founded the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation based in Kyiv, against Bloomberg News at the end of last year.
Even United24, the country’s official donation platform, admits that it was “a challenge to concentrate on the struggle of Ukraine.
But Ukraine still has needs, some of which are met by contributions from large and small non -governmental aid groups. The ordinary Ukrainians continue to donate as much as possible, even if their total capacity may decrease over time.
Already given so much
There are several reasons why it becomes more difficult for these auxiliary groups and charity organizations, say observers.
On the one hand, donors in Ukraine now have “their savings,” said Yuriy Gorodnichenko, a professor of economy at the University of California, born in Ukrainian.
And in the course of the war it is more difficult to keep Ukraine outside the country in the public eye.
Lesya Granger is the chairman and CEO of Mriya Aid, a Canadian non -profit profit that is currently focusing on helping the training of sappers to process mines under the Ukrainian soil.
It was founded three years ago and Granger admits that Ukraine now gives less attention to Ukraine – despite the recent events that the country have put back in the spotlight, how doubts about the help of the West, now that Donald Trump is back in the White House.
“Donations across the board are below,” she said.
Get the message out
But a charity organization has apparently been pushed to the trend-united24, a state donation platform that is supported by a slick website and the help of the Ukrainian celebrity ambassadors.
Less than three years after their introduction, the platform reported that they brought in more than 1 billion US dollars.
Although the donations have dropped in 2023 (at 336,750,533 US dollars), they reached a record high with $ 424,150,085 last year, said CBC News.
This money was used to support a variety of projects, including the purchase of both the autumn bot and the educational drones and the money for the construction of bomb accommodations.
United24 says that most donations – almost 930 million US dollars – went to support the armed forces in Ukraine. But not all the money goes into defense.
Kateryna Odarchenko, a political advisor based in Washington, who comes from the Kherson region in Ukraine, is generally skeptical, which is able to do the government, which is managed by the government compared to smaller, independent.
Nevertheless, she sees United24 as a certain strengths – its communication reach and media editions among them.
“United24 is not just about money, but also about awareness,” said Odarchenko and noticed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some members of his administration have a strong background in the media.
The platform managed to recruit the support of Mark Hamill, Liev Schreiber and other film stars as well as athletes and other public personalities in order to convey the message about United24 and his projects.
The Russian invasion was not easy for Ukraine and its people. The United Nations estimates that more than 12,000 of their civilians were killed, and Zelenskyy said that more than 45,000 soldiers have died if they defended their country.
Despite this tribute, the Ukrainians continue to support the support of their country and secure the future.
The sociological group of Ukraine recently published a survey in which it was reported that 71 percent of the Ukrainians surveyed are still optimistic for the future of its country.
Yuliya Bidenko, Associate Professor of Political Science at the Karazin Kharkiv National University, says that the donation for the struggle of Ukraine has become a “culture of the nation”.
The war has changed the Ukrainian society, whereby normal people give everything they can, even if they can only make small contributions, says Timur Bondaryev, a lawyer and managing partner of the Arzinger law firm of Ukraine.
“Every Ukrainian … we keep donating,” said Bondaryev, adding that this applies to pensioners as well as with higher earners.
