The world came to a standstill when Russia under Vladimir Putin began its invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of February 24th. Reports of mass exodus of Ukrainian citizens from their homes have spread like wildfire as worldwide leaders call for an immediate end to all Russian military operations in Ukraine.
On the other hand, activists are placing even greater emphasis on support for humanitarian relief as the conflict unfolds. As the war enters its fifth day, numerous global technology giants have come forward with initiatives to support Ukraine.
Here’s the compilation of initiatives that has been announced recently:
Elon Musk to the rescue
Elon Musk, on Saturday, said that his SpaceX’s Starlink service has been activated in Ukraine after a request from Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov through Twitter. To reiterate, Starlink provides low-latency, high-speed broadband internet globally through its constellation of more than 2000 satellites.
Fintech’s leads from the front
Ali Niknam, founder & CEO at bunq, an Amsterdam-based challenger bank, has offered to help Ukrainian refugees by offering them safety and shelter in Bulgaria and Georgia, and by subsequently helping to bring them to the Netherlands on an HSM visa.
You can check out his post here.
UK fintech Wise has announced restrictions on money transfers to Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The company has currently capped transfers to UAH at 2,500 GBP/EUR/USD.
“We will remove that cap as soon as we’re able to, and we’ll continue to monitor the situation very closely,” says the company.
Revolut, another London fintech company, announced that it has waived transfer fees for sending money to Ukrainian bank accounts.
The company has partnered with its charity partner, the Red Cross, enabling millions of its customers from the UK, Lithuania, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria, and Singapore to donate money to Ukrainian relief efforts.
In the latest development, three successful Dutch tech entrepreneurs have joined forces to aid those affected by the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
Ali Niknam (bunq), Joris Beckers (Picnic) and Robert Vis (MessageBird) have set up a foundation to shelter refugees fleeing the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
The People for People foundation was founded on Monday (February 28th), after bunq received an enormous amount of messages in response to a LinkedIn message that Niknam posted earlier this weekend.
Evidence, sanctions, and more
Reface, a face swap app from Ukraine, has started an informational campaign showcasing the evidence of Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.
You can check out his post here.
Robert Vis, founder and CEO of MessageBird.com, an Amsterdam-based cloud communications platform, has requested tech founders specifically to speak up.
He also imposed sanctions on Russian customers by shutting down API access to their platform, blocking SMS & Voice traffic to Russian carriers by their global customer base, and re-routing all humanitarian / NGO communications traffic through an international roaming agreement.
Google, on Sunday, confirmed that it has temporarily disabled Google Maps tools which provide live information about traffic conditions citing the safety of local communities in the country.
Binance donates $10M
Binance, the crypto and blockchain infrastructure provider, has committed a minimum of $10M to help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine through its Binance Charity Foundation.
The donation will be split between major intergovernmental organisations and nonprofit organisations already on the ground, including UNICEF, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, iSans, and People in Need, to help support displaced children and families in Ukraine and its neighbouring countries.
Facebook’s effort
Meta (formerly Facebook) has blocked access to several Russian state-controlled accounts in Ukraine.
The company also uncovered a relatively small network of about 40 accounts, Pages, and Groups on Facebook and Instagram operated from Russia and Ukraine. They targeted people in Ukraine across multiple social media platforms and through their websites, says the company.
Facebook has also decided to block Russian state media from running ads on its platform across the world.
Meta has also received numerous request from a number of governments and the EU to take further steps in relation to Russian state controlled media.
Tech to the rescue
Tech to the Rescue has announced a campaign to assist Ukrainian NGOs. The platform has asked tech companies to apply and donate human hours to Ukrainian nonprofits through TTTR’s #TechForUkraine campaign.
Mykhailo Fedorov’s letter to tech giants
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, had asked the higher executives of Google, YouTube, Apple, and Netflix to block or limit their Russian services to divert Russian youngsters to put pressure on Moscow’s leaders.
Short term housing for refugees
Airbnb and Airbnb.org have announced that Airbnb.org will offer free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. These stays will be funded by Airbnb, Inc., donors to the Airbnb.org Refugee Fund, and the generosity of Hosts through Airbnb.org.
The company is also working with governments to best support the specific needs in each country, including by providing longer-term stays.
Wunderflats, a Berlin-based startup that enables users to find and rent furnished apartments, announced that it will help people from Ukraine seeking refuge with temporary homes.
Tech world voices out against Russia
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, has also voiced his concern regarding the situation in Ukraine. He said that Apple is “doing all we can for our teams there.”
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, has voiced his opinion saying “this war is Putin’s war and his choice alone.”
“It’s a unilateral, unprovoked act of aggression that must not only be condemned in the strongest terms but met with the strongest of responses. The full range of sanctions must be imposed, and Ukraine deserves the full support of the global community,” he writes.
You can read his blog here.
Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera and Founder & Lead for the Google Brain Project tweeted:
Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Group, announced that he will donate ¥1B to the Ukrainian government for humanitarian assistance.
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