UK's Disasters Emergency Committee world's largest charity donor of aid to Ukraine

Funds raised through the Disasters Emergency Committee have helped almost seven million Ukrainians since the war began, the group has said.

That averages out to every person in the UK donating £6.35 [$8.01] to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, with an overall total of £426 million helping 6.9 million Ukrainians.

The “generous” donations make the committee, which is an umbrella group, the largest charity donor to the humanitarian response to the war, according to UN figures.

A total of £25 million was donated by the UK government through the aid match scheme.

Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) charities have provided food, clean water, shelter, cash payments, healthcare, mental health support and winter and hygiene items, among other things.

In the first six months of the war, they provided 1.9 million people with access to clean water and almost 400,000 people with hot meals and food parcels.

The DEC has worked with a network of local organisations, helping them scale up their response, as well as delivering aid directly.

Two years of the Russia-Ukraine war – in pictures

A soldier of the Ukrainian National Guard holds his position in the Serebryan Forest, in temperatures of -15°C in January 2024, in Kreminna, Donetsk Oblast. Getty Images

Classmates play with rifles made from Lego blocks after school, in Vysokopillya, December 2023. Getty Images

Leonid, a 38-year-old Ukrainian soldier suffering from severe mental trauma, cranial trauma and shrapnel wounds, does his physical training session at a psychiatric hospital in Kyiv, in October 2023. Getty Images

Gravediggers make new graves for the victims of a recent Russian missile strike, at Hroza cemetery, in October 2023. Getty Images

Oleksander, suffering from a hand injury, relaxes during a speleotherapy session, an alternative medicine respiratory therapy, at a rehabilitation center for soldiers in Kyiv, in October 2023. Getty Images

Volodymyr assists his wife Anastasia, as she has contractions before the birth of their first baby, at a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, in September 2023. Ukraine’s birth rate since the start of the war the country’s birth rate has plummeted by 28 per cent. Getty Images

Friends and relatives mourn the death of fighter pilot Andrii Pilshchykov, 30, who was killed along with two other pilots in a mid-air plane crash in Kyiv, in August 2023. Getty Images

Ukrainian recruits salute the flag as they attend a commemorative service marking Ukraine’s Independence Day, in August 2023, in a training camp in the south of England. Getty Images

Damage from a missile that hit the Chernihiv Regional Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre, killilng seven people, in August 2023. Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speak to the media at the Nato Summit in July 2023, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Getty Images

People wait for a transfer on a pontoon in a flooded area as the result of the Kakhovka dam destruction in June 2023 in Afanasiivka village, Mykolaiv region. Getty Images

State workers and Ukrainian military personnel inspect the crater left behind by a missile strike in Dnipro, in May 2023. Getty Images

A grad missile is launched on the Donetsk fron tline in April 2023. Getty Images

A Ukrainian sniper with the 28th Brigade moves to a fighting position in a front-line trench facing Russian troops in March 2023 outside of Bakhmut. Getty Images

A damaged bust of Vladimir Lenin lies in the street in March 2023 in in the strategic town of Lyman. Getty Images

A member of Ukraine’s 79th Air Assault Brigade fires a rocket-propelled grenade at Russian positions near Marinka in February 2023. Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses MPs in Westminster Hall, London, in February 2023. Getty Images

Destroyed buildings 32km west of the front lines in Donetsk in January 2023. Getty Images

An anti-aircraft gun in January 2023 fires at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk. Reuters

Destruction in the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk, in January 2023. AFP

A Ukrainian artilleryman discards an empty shell on the outskirts of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, in December 2022. AFP

Children receive presents from a Ukrainian soldier dressed as Santa on Christmas Eve 2022 in Sloviansk. Getty Images

More than 1,000 missiles and rockets fired by Russian forces collected for cataloguing in Kharkiv in December 2022. Getty Images

The Metro provides shelter as Russia launches another missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in December 2022. Getty Images

Children at a PE class in Kyiv after Russia abandoned its attempt to seize the capital in November 2022. Getty Images

A sniper searches for Russian positions on the bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson in November 2022. Getty Images

Graffiti by Banksy on a wall among the debris in Borodyanka in November 2022. Getty Images

Ukrainian flags flutter around graves in a cemetery for soldiers killed in action in Kharkiv in October 2022. Getty Images

Parts of a drone, which Ukrainian authorities said was Iranian-made, after a Russian strike in Kyiv in October 2022. Reuters

An elderly woman is helped across a damaged bridge in Bakhmut in October 2022. Getty Images

Fuel tanks ablaze on damaged sections of the Kerch bridge in Crimea, in October 2022. Reuters

A destroyed bridge makes crossing the Donets river difficult, in Staryi Saltiv, east of Kharkiv, in September 2022. AFP

Firefighters at a thermal power plant in Kharkiv damaged by a Russian missile strike in September 2022. Reuters

Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr with his daughter Nikole at Lviv railway station in August 2022. Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then-British prime minister Boris Johnson read a plaque in Kyiv in August 2022 dedicated to the latter for his support. Getty Images

Destroyed Russian military equipment on Khreshchatyk street in Kyiv. The materiel was turned into an open-air military museum ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24. AFP

Shakhtar Donetsk v Metalist Kharkiv kicks off the Ukrainian Premier League season in August 2022 amid fears of bomb and missile alerts. EPA

Ukrainian servicemen fire an American-made 155mm M777 howitzer in July 2022 in the Kharkiv area. EPA

A bomb crater on the Antonovsky bridge across the Dnipro river in Kherson, July 2022. AFP

Maksym and Andrii with plastic guns at a ‘checkpoint’ they set up while playing in Kharkiv, July 2022. AP

Ukrainian troops on Snake Island in June 2022. Reuters

A woman evacuated from an area of conflict in June 2022 contemplates what the next move might be. AP

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Kyiv in June 2022. Getty Images

Graves in Irpin cemetery, May 2022. Getty Images

A Ukrainian soldier trapped within the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works complex in Mariupol in May 2022. Reuters

The wreckage of a Russian helicopter in a bomb-cratered field in Biskvitne, May 2022. Getty Images

A Ukrainian army officer inspects a grain warehouse shelled by Russian forces in May 2022 near Novovorontsovka, Kherson. Getty Images

A boy from Mariupol arriving at an evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia in May 2022. Getty Images

A Russian serviceman on guard outside Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in May 2022. AFP

Oksana searches for salvageable items on the destroyed second floor of her home in Hostomel, April 2022. Getty Images

A floral memorial wall in Lviv for Ukrainian civilians killed during the Russian invasion, April 2022. Getty Images

People fleeing Lviv, eastern Ukraine, in April 2022, wait for a bus that will take them to Poland. Getty Images

A Russian soldier patrols a bombed Mariupol theatre in April 2022, as Moscow intensified its campaign to take the strategic port city. AFP

A Ukrainian celebrates success in Hostomel in April 2022. Getty Images

Julia Palovskaya reads to children during an air raid drill in the basement shelter at a preschool in Lviv, April 2022. Getty Images

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Bucha in April 2022, where hundreds of bodies were found in the street and it was claimed the Russian leadership was responsible for killing civilians. AFP

Oleh Smolin, 23, who suffered leg injuries from Russian shelling in April 2022, in hospital in Chuhuiv. Getty Images

Fleeing refugees arrive at the border train station of Zahony, Hungary, in March 2022. Getty Images

A father says goodbye to his daughter on an evacuation train about to leave Odesa in March 2022. AFP

February 24 will be a year since Russia started the Ukraine war. The National picks out the most powerful images from the conflict. AFP

Ukrainians under a destroyed bridge as they try to cross the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv in March 2022. AP

People cram into Kyiv station to catch trains to Poland or to western parts of Ukraine, shortly after the initial invasion in February 2022. Getty Images

A demonstration in support of Ukraine in Trafalgar Square, London, February 2022 . Getty Images

Russian army vehicles in Armyansk, Crimea, in February 2022. AFP

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 25, 2022, in a video on Facebook. He said ‘we are all here’, shortly after the Russian invasion began. AFP

A residential building damaged by a missile strike in Kyiv in February 2022. Getty Images

A metro station in Kyiv in February 2022, crowded with people trying to escape the invasion. AFP

A police officer addresses people gathered to protest against the invasion of Ukraine, in central Saint Petersburg, Russia, February 2022. AFP

A protester in support of Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany, in February 2022. Getty Images

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to repel an attack in Ukraine’s Lugansk region on February 24, 2022. AFP

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 24, 2022, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion. AFP

A mass exodus from Kyiv after pre-offensive missile strikes by Russian armed forces on February 24, 2022. Getty Images

Security personnel inspect the remains of a shell in Kyiv on February 24, 2022, soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine. AFP

CCTV footage shows Russian military equipment crossing a Crimea border checkpoint on February 24, 2022. AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin early on February 24, 2022, when he announced a ‘military operation’ in Ukraine. AFP

Most of the aid (58 per cent) has been spent inside Ukraine, with the rest used to help refugees in neighbouring countries such as Poland, Hungary and Moldova.

During 2023, the DEC helped people stay safe and warm during winter power cuts, and supported those forced to flee when the Kakhovka dam was breached in June.

More recently, DEC charities have been focused on providing people in need with cash payments to allow them to buy essentials, and a large-scale project providing Ukrainians with cash to help with the cost of hosting people displaced from other parts of the country.

Providing basic essentials also “remains a priority”, the DEC said.

UAE sends plane carrying 1,640 household power generators to Ukraine – in pictures

The UAE has sent an aid plane carrying 100 tonnes of power generators to assist civilians affected by the crisis in Ukraine. All photos: Wam

The aid includes 1,640 household power generators, each with a capacity of between 3.5 and 8 kilowatts, designed to provide electricity to civilian homes

On December 19, the UAE transported some of these electric generators to the Polish capital Warsaw, with the remainder set to be flown over in January

The latest delivery is part of the UAE’s continuing commitment to provide relief and aid to Ukraine, which is at war with Russia

The power generators are designed to help civilians in Ukraine cope with harsh winter conditions

Since Russia’s invasion, the UAE has provided relief supplies worth $100 million to Ukrainian civilians

“Last year I visited Ukraine to meet some of the people being helped with the money that has been so generously donated by the British public,” chief executive Saleh Saeed said.

“I met people like Polina [whose name has been changed to protect her identity], a mum-of-three from Kharkiv who had fled the fighting while pregnant.

“To see that she was safe, with a place to stay, food and other items the family needed, thanks to donations from across the UK, was really heartwarming.

“To know that she is just one among millions of people that our member charities have been able to reach through this appeal is just incredible.”

The International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) director in Ukraine, Scott Lea, said: “Thanks to funds from the DEC’s Ukraine appeal, the IRC have been able to rapidly provide timely cash distributions to sustain and empower families throughout the conflict – reaching almost 20,000 vulnerable households across Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson by January 2024.

“Cash assistance affords people the dignity and choice to buy exactly what they need, when they need it – whether it be food, medicine, or other essentials.

“This vital support would not be possible without the generosity of the UK public, and the IRC and our fellow DEC agencies remain extremely grateful for their incredible compassion and solidarity with the people of Ukraine.”