The head of the Irish Red Cross has praised the way that its sister organisation in Ukraine has used “unprecedented” assistance from Ireland to respond to the devastation of Russia’s invasion and lay the foundations for recovery, even as the country braces itself for a third winter of all-out war.
Deirdre Garvey visited Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and several other towns and cities. and met staff and volunteers of the Ukrainian Red Cross, which has opened scores of new branches around the country in response to fighting and massive destruction that has killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 10 million.
“There was a visceral, emotional response from Irish people…and a lot of it was channelled through the Irish Red Cross,” Ms Garvey said of donations and other support offered to help Ukrainians following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Over the first year of Europe’s biggest war since 1945, private and corporate donations amounting to €42 million poured in to the Irish Red Cross. About 10 per cent of the funds are being used to help Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, while the rest finances a multiyear support programme for Ukrainians in their homeland and nearby states.
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“We raised the money but obviously we’re not personally experts in the needs of Ukrainians,” Ms Garvey said. “The Ukrainian Red Cross are the experts…and all those resources were available to them, so they could quickly identify people’s needs and channel aid very efficiently to the places that needed it.”
In Irpin, a leafy Kyiv suburb that became the frontline in February 2022 when Ukrainian soldiers and volunteer fighters halted Russia’s advance on the capital, Garvey heard how the work of the local Red Cross had changed from evacuating civilians amid gunfire and shelling to providing psychological help and repairing damaged homes.
“It was very dangerous here at the start. When Irpin was invaded we were on the outskirts next to a destroyed bridge helping people evacuate. They were coming from here and from Bucha and other nearby districts under attack,” said Ihor Prokopenko, head of the Ukrainian Red Cross in Kyiv region.
“We set up reception points and gave people food and warm clothes and first aid and then helped them move to a safer place. And then when these areas were de-occupied we established local Red Cross centres in Bucha and elsewhere, started bringing in humanitarian aid and developing our logistics,” added Prokopenko, who also drives a 10-tonne truck for the organisation.
The liberation of Bucha at the end of March 2022 revealed atrocities committed by Russian troops against local residents. At least 419 civilians were killed during occupation, and numerous cases of torture and rape have been documented.
“I’m an experienced emergency neurosurgeon, but I never saw such horrors in my life before,” said Mykola Polishchuk (80), a former Ukrainian health minister who is president of the country’s Red Cross.
“There were terrible events here that it is hard to imagine happening in the 21st century…and they are still continuing in other parts of Ukraine,” he added. “They create not only humanitarian needs but leave a deep mark that needs long-term psychological and social support. So we put a lot of focus on supporting the recovery of people who survived this and have to live with what they went through.”
The Ukrainian Red Cross, founded in 1918, was the country’s biggest humanitarian organisation even before Russia’s full invasion prompted rapid expansion to meet spiralling needs. It now has 200 local branches across all non-occupied regions of Ukraine and some 5,000 staff and 8,000 volunteers.
“I’m seeing the quality of the leadership here. The imperative of the emergency has brought in really strong leadership from all sectors in Ukraine. They’ve managed to achieve so much,” Ms Garvey said.
Kyiv region had five district branches in 2021 but now has 30, providing everything from community events for children and the elderly to repairing housing and other infrastructure and assisting the emergency response to Russia’s near-daily missile and drone attacks on the capital and surrounding area.
Vyshgorod, a large northern suburb of Kyiv on the Dnipro river, is often on the route of Russian attack drones flying towards the capital from neighbouring Belarus, and its dam and hydroelectric power station were hit by a missile attack in late August.
The Red Cross emergency response team in Vyshgorod is specially trained in firefighting, but also conducts search and rescue operations in buildings hit by shelling and helped evacuate some 15,000 people from areas that were on the front line in 2022.
With international focus on the war and donations for Ukraine in decline – the Irish Red Cross raised €921,000 for Ukrainian causes last year – Ms Garvey encouraged the Ukrainian organisation to make its projects sustainable by keeping costs low and efficiency high.
“There are no easy answers to this because the need will continue and it doesn’t look like the conflict phase of this situation is going to end anytime soon,” she said. “That’s my big question – how are you going to sustain it when we are gone? They have to plan for the future now.”
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