365 days of suffering and resilience. Today marks one-year since Russia’s brutal, unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On the eve of the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Victor Hetmanczuk, Chair of the Board of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF), and Alexandra Chyczij, the National President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), held a press conference in Toronto reporting on the $52 million raised through the CUF-UCC joint Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and the $26 million already deployed in the essential humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

They were joined by Her Excellency, Yulia Kovaliv, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Canada, who expressed her deep gratitude for the help and support of Ukrainian people provided by Canadians over the last year, and also, by Rahul Singh, the Executive Director of GlobalMedic, one of CUF’s partners in delivering food and hygiene kits to Ukraine.

KEY FACTS:

• The Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal is a joint effort of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC). For over a year, the two organizations have been working together to efficiently and cost-effectively deliver crucial humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians suffering in the brutal and unprovoked war.

• Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on February 24th, 2022 – the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has raised over $52 million from 72,000 donors across Canada.

• Primary focus of the humanitarian relief efforts was in the area of food security, medical care, and emergency shelter for displaced persons in Ukraine and in the neighbouring countries.

Since February 2022, the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal has delivered:

• 300 thousand boxes of food providing meals to 850,000 people in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania
• 53 MT of medicines reaching 790,500 patients
• 161 generators for hospitals, surviving families of Ukrainian armed forces personnel killed in action, and in support of Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy
• 2,000 stoves for cooking and heating homes in recently liberated areas
• 2,000 wooden beds, mattresses, duvets, pillows and bedding for the displaced persons
• 1,000 sets of firefighting gear, 10,000 gloves specialized for the first responders
• $1.2M in psychological assistance for civilians
• 2 surgical missions who operated on 44 patients with severe craniofacial injuries, totalling 106 procedures
• 20 Vacuum-Assisted Closure (VAC) machines for wound infection treatment in hospitals in Western Ukraine plus consumables
• 11 Toyota ambulances for Ukraine’s Ministry of Health
• 3 Humanitarian Demining Robots
• 1,000 pallets of cleaning supplies to displaced persons
• 330 pallets of PPE to hospitals

According to UNICEF estimates, by the end of 2022, a total of 17.7 million people in Ukraine were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, including 3.4 million children. Currently, 5.9 million internally displaced persons are registered in Ukraine.

QUOTATIONS:

• “Ukrainians are severely affected by Russian aggression. Russia has destroyed almost 50% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and most Ukrainians do not have access to basics, such as electricity, water, and heat. We are very grateful to CUF and UCC for delivering the generators with light masts for our teams of electricians, who can now efficiently repair the grid and restore the electricity, as well as the generators for hospitals and veterans’ families. More than 45,000 residential areas have been destroyed in Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands of people unable to return to their homes. CUF-UCC help set up temporary shelters by supplying the necessities, beds and mattresses, food and medical supplies, as well as sponsoring psychological support programs for Ukrainians. On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I want to thank you for your support and ask you to continue standing with Ukraine until our common victory”, – Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada, Yulia Kovaliv.

• “The Ukrainian Canadian community has been working non-stop to support our sisters and brothers in Ukraine in their heroic defence of their homeland from Russia`s genocidal war of aggression. Our community is immensely grateful to all Canadians for their steadfast, generous support of the Ukrainian people in their time of need.” – Alexandra Chyczij, National President, Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

• “This year, more than ever, we are grateful to those who founded Canada-Ukraine Foundation in 1995, and to all those who have built its strong foundation, nurtured the relations both, here, in Canada, and in Ukraine, and kept the organization effective and efficient, so that when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24^th – we were there within a few days with the first tranche of humanitarian aid. Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal became the fund of choice to all across Canada, who wanted to support the humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine.” – Victor Hetmanczuk, Chair of the Board of Directors, Canada-Ukraine Foundation.

• This ugly war in Ukraine has displaced over 16 million people. Brutal attacks on civilian infrastructure have damaged electrical grids and knocked out water purification facilities. One in three household are food insecure. People are hungry and need clean water. I am proud of our partnership with CUF. They have rallied the community to raise awareness and funds to help vulnerable families in need. With their support we have reached families in desperate need with life-saving humanitarian assistance. This war rages on and it is getting uglier. We must redouble our efforts to keep helping families in need.” – Rahul Singh, Executive Director, GlobalMedic.