Winter Challenges for Humanitarian Assistance

Participants of the first panel, Winter Challenges for Humanitarian Assistance moderated by U.S.-Ukraine Foundation’s Vice President John Kun, included Ukrainian Parliament Member Volodymyr Kreydenko; Head of Come Back Alive charity fund Taras Chmut; Head of Department of State Emergency Service in Kyiv Region Liliya Pysanko; and U.S.-Ukraine Foundation Project Director Oksana Sukhina, who spent four weeks in October-November in Ukraine.

The panelists highlighted specific problems and needs of people in Ukraine as well as the Foundation’s efforts in delivering more than $11 million worth humanitarian aid responding to those needs. USUF has helped provide tactical medicine, medical equipment and supplies, water purification systems, food boxes, protective gear for canine units, and grants to local organizations operating shelters for internally displaced persons and animals, working on repairing the ruined people’s homes, doing emergency evacuations, providing mental health services for children, and more.

Ukrainian Parliament Member Volodymyr Kreydenko elaborated on the words of President Zelensky that the coming winter will be hard for Ukraine in military, economic, and energy terms. Ruined electricity, heat, and water infrastructure results in direct threats to lives of more than 10 million people as temperatures reach the negative marks, and their survival becomes dependent on access to alternative autonomous sources of heat or so-called Points of Resilience: heated hubs with access to power generators and water.

Ukrainian people show great self-organization, dedication, and skill to meet the challenges and keep the country and its services running, but they are very thin on means and desperately need financial help from outside.  

Head of Come Back Alive charity fund Taras Chmut underscored that Ukraine would not have been able to withstand in this war without support from Western partners and continues to need their help to survive and win. Unfortunately, the coming winter will be the hardest in the Ukraine’s history with unprecedented scale of possible humanitarian catastrophe if aid does not arrive in time.

We must act now!