What are effective ways to help Ukrainians right now?

Support free press and non-profits combating political persecution in Russia. Russian propaganda works well and poisons western media as well as local people's minds. People in Russia should have access to trustworthy sources of information. Those who aren't scared to express their opinions in public should have access to legal assistance: today 1700 people involved in street protests against the war were arrested.

Personally, I donate to Meduza (Russian online newspaper and news aggregator) and OVD-Info (human rights service). Both of them have been labeled as "foreign agents" in Russia.

EDIT- thanks everyone! My request is no longer needed. 
 

Thousands of people and friends from my country, Poland, are organizing in this FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/683793819641997/ It's a group where people (random citizens of Poland) offer housing for whole families, even with animals, offer transport from the border, offer transport from different Ukraine locations. If there are Polish people on the forum, I highly recommend joining this group if you want to help. 

carmenmedina @ 2022-03-01T14:33 (+1)

I don't know if this is of any use but I tried to collect free transport and accommodation possibilities & generic help in this Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dhktCZWoHTUYzKGYYk4jPdeUMcuNu-SYXv-TlSHZols/edit#gid=0 Please feel free to add to it and circulate it if you find it useful. Also, please let me know if it can be harmful in ways I haven't thought about!

tamgent @ 2022-02-25T19:13 (+1)

Do you know if there is something similar in Romania by any chance?

Charles He @ 2022-02-25T21:22 (+5)

This group is at 93K, about the same size as the Polish one.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/unitipentruucraina

tamgent @ 2022-02-26T01:10 (+1)

Thank you

Advocate for introducing strict sanctions against Putin's friends and Kremlin-linked Russian oligarchs. That's what Navalny has been talking about for many years: "There is no sense to sanction generals who are definitely not traveling a lot or have bank accounts in Europe".

My intuition is that Putin doesn't care much about money anymore and he's more concerned about impacting history, but his surroundings do care about their property and bank accounts. 

Hello, everyone! Nina, Kyiv EA group organizer here.
Thank you so much for raising this issue and thank you for your concern! 

About Ukrainian charities:

Assessment of the effectiveness of local charities in Ukraine was on our priority list, but… you know, all this happened. So we don’t know how effective the charities in Ukraine are. (UPD: EA Poland and some other EA communities are working on roughly estimating charities helping Ukraine, there is also a list of recommended charities. Also you can submit an organization in this form.) I know that Open Cages Ukraine are grounding their actions on EA principles, but that's all we know for now. (As dpiepgrass has pointed out in the comments, they are working on reducing animal suffering.)(If you happen to know about other EA charities in Ukraine, please tell!) 

So, the official bank accounts (here to support the military and here to support the medics) for supporting Ukraine that three days ago started our government are probably the best we have right now. Also, there are a lot of local charities that provide medical help, help for the children affected by the war, help refugees and so on (sending the links here, here and here). Also some countries started gathering help for Ukrainians, maybe you can find some local facilities involved in it in your country. 

Russian media controlled by the government

Many people in Russia don't know what is really going on because of the misinformation about the invasion. For example, they say that no one is firing at Ukrainian civilian facilities, only at military facilities.
There already are some organizations that debunk fake information: stopfake.org, informnapalm.org, (and there are great links in other answers to this post). Also I think it is really important to support people in Russia who are right now protesting against the war, their human rights activists, their independent media and politicians from opposition.

International support

Two days ago I thought that international political support is crucial. General considerations were: demands to close Ukrainian sky (I'm really really not at all sure that this is a good idea anymore), to impose sanctions especially against the politicians in Russia who are supporting the war.

The situation is rapidly changing, political support is impressive right now, but it's hard to tell if it’s enough to stop the invasion. But if your government isn’t taking as much action as you think it probably should, I think it still might be an area you can influence a lot.

Longtermist organisations

I’m also really really really looking for people from longtermist orgs, especially people who specialize in great power conflicts - some of our community members are in Ukraine right now, and it would be great to know about some longtermist considerations to guide our actions!

UPD: added some other links with other ways to help!

I think it is difficult to intervene in an emergency and extremely cost inefficient. Also, the situation has maximum attention.

It is difficult to watch the events and realize many people similar to us will suffer and die.

There were similar posts around the Afghan collapse in 2021, which got some attention, although the suffering was relatively small. 

Now, months later, some say we could see the deaths of millions of people. 

But this isn't in the news anymore.

[UPDATE] Thanks for support! If all things lined up go through, the request is covered. 

I have a donation opportunity that from a quick judgment, seems very neglected, potentially important and tractable; it also needs donations ASAP (the earlier the donation, the higher the impact). It is a higher risk and a higher reward; not everyone will be interested. Please message me if you are interested, and I can explain on a quick Signal call. 

UPDATE: From what I heard many European countries such as Poland and Romania are very open to Ukrainian refugees, so this might not be a bottleneck (comment if you disagree!)

Lobby for taking up Ukrainian refugees in your country? (if you live in a suitable country)

It looks like there are some low hanging fruit: Ukrainians are already allowed to stay in Germany for up to 90 days without visa, but only if they have a biometric passport, which half of Ukrainians don't have (and might not be able to get any time soon because of the war). Germany could temporarily drop that requirement for Ukrainians. Here some more requests of Pro Asyl (largest German pro asylum advocacy organisation). For anyone with influence on policy decisions or on the public debate in general, this might be an effective intervention?

 

Kelsey Piper's most recent Future Perfect newsletter has outlined several donation opportunities that look great. 

[EFFECTIVE HACKERS]

Epistemic Status : I'm not very confident about my idea because I just started thinking about this idea this morning. So I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on that.


I wonder if a small group of smart hackers couldn't do huge things to help Ukraine vs Russia. I feel like Anonymous tends to do massive not-very-smart attacks (huge DDoS basically) and I feel like given their results there might be room for very smart interventions that truly make a difference in Russia's ability to win this war (either helping Ukrainians via information or some protection against cyber attacks, or attacking Russian logistics / information systems for instance)


For the rationale of engaging in these cyber activities: 
- I feel like anything that does not harm Russian civilians and makes the Ukraine invasion harder is positive, bc I feel like this might have very important long-run effects (if Russia comes out of this conflict much weaker than when it began, it's a major incentive against future full-scale invasions, and that's very positive)

The downsides: 
- If your localization is identifiable and you're able to do significant things, it might make diplomatic relations between your country / Russia even worse. 
- It might be risky if you want to go to Russia at some point
 

Possibly stupid idea:

1. Use civilian intelligence/OSINT to map out where all the Russian oligarchs' boats are.
2. Come up with a memetic ask for how to get people to peacefully protest all oligarch boats.
3. Social media campaign/digital media blitz to get this message public and well-known
4. If successful, organize large numbers of peaceful protests around the world near yachts and other public symbols of high Russian wealth
5. ???
6. Hope that the oligarchs can pressure Putin to stop the war

(If people do end doing this, I'd personally prefer it if they do not publicly credit me or link their work to effective altruism)

There is an initiative called Tech for Ukraine, aimed at pairing NGOs with tech companies in order to help the former develop IT capabilities eg. related to cybersecurity, embedded payments, gathering donations etc. - all this to amplify the humanitarian and civil society response in Ukraine.

Main page:
https://techtotherescue.org/tech/tech-for-ukraine

Case studies about projects so far (done for non-Ukraine related NGOs):
https://www.techtotherescue.org/case-studies

This could be an effective way to get involved, provided you have the skillset or you work in a company that can provide one.

At EA Poland we've started to try evaluating organisations running fundraisers for Ukraine to make sure people can donate with the biggest possible impact. If you'd like to get involved we have a dedicated form where you can submit an organisation by answering several questions. The main goal of this project is to recommend organisations that are worth supporting financially. https://forms.gle/rAdACBs9JFZXLPTk6 

What do you guys think of simply donating the to the Ukranian army? It's not obvious to me that anything is more high leverage at promoting democracy and peace in the long term than simply helping Ukraine amount a more effective defense and increase the cost to Russia of its aggression. What do y'all think about organizations like Come Back Alive that appear to be funneling money directly to the Ukranian army.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/people-sending-bitcoin-aid-ukraines-205552024.html?guccounter=1

https://www.facebook.com/backandalive/posts/pfbid0PxPhCU7yYpHekepodMPsrVHJVAwdXeM1JijwZC7zeFtB76xWRKraDh4BCvrMTFzSl

Help others (especially misinformed Russians) get a clear picture of what's happening
Russian state TV is framing the invasion as a "liberation of Ukrainians from their nazi government" to justify the war. Ukraine's president Zelenskyy has responded with an address to the Russian people directly in Russian that I personally found quite powerful. Any guesses on how many Russians have already seen this? If you know any Russians personally who might not have seen it already, maybe sharing it with them could help? Any other good news sources (in English or Russian) that more people should see?

Donate to effective humanitarian aid non-profits in Ukraine? 
Does anyone know what some effective non-profits are, and how funding constrained they are? After quick Google search, I just found these suggestions, but I don't know how effective any of them is. 

We tried to combine a list of organisations working on providing the help to the people of Ukraine. These seemed like reasonable options to us:

https://altruisto.com/blog/how-you-can-support-the-people-of-ukraine

Sam Bankman Fried gave $25 to each Ukrainian on FTX.

https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1496980981617946624?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Another way to get involved might be to join OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) community and help vet information from disinformation etc. There is a nice introductory article to be found here: https://www.freethink.com/technology/osint-ukraine 

Hi everyone. I'm currently working directly on the humanitarian response to the situation in Ukraine. 

• Please donate money, not goods. Currently, the delivery of essential goods like medical supplies is being hindered because of private donations from the public, which are clogging up already restricted supply chains. In humanitarian crises like this one, donating money is almost always more effective than donating goods.
• Consider donating to other humanitarian crises. The Ukraine crisis is actually comparatively well-funded - the last I heard, $1.5bn of the UN's $1.7bn appeal had been pledged. This is a much higher rate of funding than most humanitarian appeals achieve. But the $1.5bn that has been pledged will come from elsewhere in the global system, and will likely be taken from other ongoing humanitarian crises. Those ongoing crises are already being made worse by the war in Ukraine: the global economic impacts are expected to push more people into poverty, and Ukraine and Russia are both major grain exporters so we can expect to see food insecurity increase worldwide. And ultimately, Ukrainian refugees are likely less vulnerable than, say, people in need in Yemen or DRC. You might also want to lobby your government to pay more attention to these neglected crises.
• Donate to organisations countering Russian disinformation. There is a lot of this coming out in the western media, as well as in Russia, so do be sceptical of things that you read in the news. Anything seeking to fact check news reports, or to inform and empower Russian citizens, seem likes it would have a positive impact.
• Do your research on secondary impacts. Sanctions, for example, can be extremely effective, but they can also have a lot of dangerous secondary impacts, geopolitically and on individuals (for example, a ban on grain exports from Russia would have huge humanitarian consequences worldwide). Funding arms would be extremely dangerous if those arms fell into Russian hands. Governments introducing sanctions or providing lethal aid to Ukraine are putting huge amounts of effort and expertise into working out how to do so effectively; it's unlikely that members of the public will be better informed on those issues.

In this situation, I think the most important effort is to help the Ukrainian army prolong the conflict so that:
- The West has more time for tougher sanctions.
- Sanctions start affecting Russia
- The morale on the Russian side weakens, forcing Putin to stop the advance. 

To support the military, I recommend https://www.blue-yellow.lt/en/ Its an organization that has been operating there since 2014, providing military and humanitarian support.

My trusted sources tell me that money spent there is even more efficient than directly supporting the Ukrainian army and their bank account. 

The Canadian government is matching 1-1 every fund donated to The Canadian Red Cross Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal. 

This seems like a good way to optimize your donations towards a humanitarian cause specific to the conflict. (Every $1 donated is worth $2)

https://donate.redcross.ca/page/100227/donate/1?_gl=1*li75g9*_ga*MTYxMTE4MjA2Ni4xNjQ0NjE1NDcw*_ga_376D8LHM0R*MTY0NTc5MzU5MC4xMi4wLjE2NDU3OTM1OTAuMA..&_ga=2.8498675.712879640.1645730482-1611182066.1644615470

I summarized my view on the problem here, mainly about sanctions. And thanks to @Alex_Berezhnoy and @Ula for the links.

Epistemic Status : I just read a Twitter thread on it and I found the idea interesting. So I'm sharing it for this. But it's still very plausible I'm wrong.

I feel like it might be worth considering this: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/give-russians-real-news-about-ukraine-using-ads
It's basically an ad campaign to raise awareness among Russian on what happens in Ukraine. It looks like the project has committed to a high degree of transparency. 
So I'd say that there are two main plausible paths to impact: 
- The direct impact of the campaign. It looks like in this context, the marginal value of information might be high because if many people update (which is plausible), it might put pressure on Putin and lead him to lower his expectations on Ukraine. 
- The informative impact: I'd be curious to have detailed data on this kind of ad campaign. I feel like it hasn't been tried a lot yet, and I wonder how effective it could be. Given the announced transparency of this project, it's likely that it could give us a better idea of how efficient it is (via the click rate for instance). That said, it might be hard to track the actual impact of that on Russia's policy. So my guess is that it would provide a lot of information only if it's very efficient or very inefficient.

 

We are OpenPrinciples, an EA-aligned community and a crowdsourced wiki for collecting life principles. The situation in Ukraine and the world's reaction to it might be telling us that we need good principles more than ever before. So for this Saturday, we are organizing a group discussion session for Ukraine Situation Related Life Principles.

If you like to come, please prepare 1 of your question/challenge and 1 of your life principle related to the Ukraine situation. Here are some example questions:

- How to take action rationally for what you believe
- How to maintain your mental health when you are worried for the world
- How to control your emotion when going through guilt / social pressure
- How to realize one's political bias

If you are interested, please join us at: https://zoom.us/j/95795466560?pwd=Yk9mMjdudUhTYU5yaXFSN3lpeVc4dz09

For this Saturday March 12th, 4-5pm GMT, or 11pm-12pm EST, or 8~9am PST

Short term humanitarian option

A friend of mine is organising private transports of emergency goods (food, medicine, etc) from Western Germany to Kiev. This coming weekend they will be delivering their first load (~€3,000 worth of medical equipment). 

Transporting goods from Western Germany is of course an expensive option to bring these goods into the country and there are good reasons to donate to professional humanitarian organisations acting locally to perform this kind of help (i.e. it’s cheaper, better coordinated, etc). The temporary value add I see in this initiative lays in the fact that they are delivering the goods straight to the front line in Kiev - a risk that professional humanitarian organisations cannot take at the moment (https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/statement-un-resident-and-humanitarian-coordinator-ukraine-osnat-lubrani-3-march-2022). 

If you would like donate, you can donate via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=TJTXV9AQTPFRY. 

I’m coordinating with my friend to have a sense for their ability to absorb more funds and will update this comment accordingly. 

an article from vox with their suggestions on effective ways to help:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22955885/donate-ukraine