How to Help Ukraine
In light of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, some of you might be wondering what you can do to help Ukraine in this vital moment. It’s easy to feel helpless when this conflict is happening so far away, but you can help. Here are some ways to do just that:
-Donate: You can do what our governments have largely failed to do (cough, Germany, cough), and donate to the Ukrainian military. I however doubt that you possess military hardware so let’s stick to donating money for now. You can, for example, donate to the charity “Come Back Alive”, a very accountable charity who helps supply the Ukrainian military here. You can also donate directly to the military here.
-Volunteer: For the really brave out there you can sign up to volunteer for the Ukrainian army. Foreign nationals are allowed to do so, you can try to sign up at recruitment offices.
-Investigate: You can help track Russian military movements from the comfort and safety of home! All you need is a computer and an internet connection. Here’s Bellingcat’s guide to open source investigation.
-Hack: If you have programming skills you can probably help fight in the parallel cyberwar. If random Russian hacker groups can constantly attack us I don’t see why random European/Western hacker groups can’t fight back.
-Encourage: You can also help indirectly by rallying support for Ukraine at and/from home. Write to politicians, make and spread posters, create some banger war music to keep morale high. Every little bit counts, because if our politicians realise how much we care about this, they’ll be more willing to act.
As long as the West, and especially Europe, stands strong and united, Putin can’t win. If even a small proportion of Europeans help Ukraine by putting what they have to offer to good use, whether that’s money, bravery, online-sleuthing skills, cybersecurity knowledge, or anything at all really, I’m sure we can come out on top.
PS: If any of you are feeling nostalgic for when this was only an unending proxy war of trench warfare conducted by an imperialist dictatorship to stop the democratic will of the people of Ukraine, you can read my interview with report, Reece Lynch, here.
