Thank you for staying committed to relief efforts as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second year.
Hello Friend,
Thank you for staying committed to relief efforts as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its second year. The conflict, which formally began in February 2022, has already left in its wake more than 350,000 casualties and a humanitarian and economic disaster that shows no sign of ending soon.
To assist your continued involvement, the Council on Foundations will send out periodic digests with the latest developments on the crisis in Eurasia roughly every two months. We also maintain a regularly updated resource page on the invasion, which we encourage you to visit.
If you have any questions, feedback, or submissions, please contact our Global Philanthropy team.
Events and Resources
We invite you to join our next funder roundtable on grantmaking to Ukraine, which will discuss current medical and health needs, on Thursday, June 8, from 2:00–3:00 p.m. ET. Featured speakers are Boris Lushniak, Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland and former Acting US Surgeon General, and Maryna Baydyuk, President of United Help Ukraine.
Reconstruction costs and opportunities
A joint assessment estimates the cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine as US $411 billion and growing. Another projects that foreign capital inflows to Ukraine need to reach $50 billion annually for five years for a swift recovery.
USAID has provided $13 billion to help Ukraine’s government fund basic public services; $1.4 billion in humanitarian assistance; and over $800 million in development assistance to bolster Ukraine’s energy grid, agriculture, small businesses, and civil society.
Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a former commander of the 1st Armored Division and of the U.S. Army in Europe, provided insight on the complexities the Ukrainian Armed Forces face as they prepare a counteroffensive.
In an opinion piece in the European edition of Politico, former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder makes the case for integrating Ukraine into NATO.
Zelenskyy visited Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, all of which pledged “billions of dollars” in military aid for Ukraine.
Assessing the destruction
A report by the Kyiv-based think tank Cedos found that 1,259 Ukrainian schools have been damaged and 223 have been destroyed as of the start of 2023.
Russia’s invasion has caused widespread environmental damage in many regions of Ukraine, resulting in “multiple air pollution incidents and potentially serious contamination of ground and surface waters.”
Liesl Gerntholtz of PEN America says that the elimination of Ukrainian culture is one of Putin’s goals, and relief efforts should pay “greater attention to the survival and well-being of those who create, inspire, and develop culture in all of its varied forms.”
The Council of Europe has established a Register of Damage that will serve as "a record of evidence" of damages caused to the victims of Russia's crimes of aggression in Ukraine."
Public and cultural diplomacy
CNN profiled Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s war-time Ambassador to the United States and the first woman to serve as Ukraine’s ambassador in Washington since Ukraine established diplomatic relations with the US over 30 years ago.
As the winner of the 2022 Eurovision song contest, Ukraine was entitled to host the event this year. The musical extravaganza was moved to Liverpool due to the invasion, but much of the programming was devoted to Ukraine.
