Ukraine’s fight against Russia hasn’t gotten any easier with time. Attacks on its cities and infrastructure continue and its people have not had a chance to rest since Russia invaded three years ago. 

And it hasn’t gotten any easier for aid groups trying to raise money to help Ukraine, either, as it becomes more challenging to keep global attention on the war.

“The readiness to donate for Ukraine has been deteriorating for many months now, as the war in Ukraine has become ‘normal’ news for most of people in the West,” said Vitali Olijnik, a member of the Ukraine-Hilfe Berlin non-profit aid organization.   

“[It’s] become increasingly difficult to raise funds for our projects and it is getting worse by month,” he said by email on Friday, the same day his group provided Ukrainian firefighters with a new fire engine.

Similar stories can be heard from groups based in Ukraine itself.

“To raise the same amount of donations we have to work three times as hard as in previous years,” Serhiy Prytula, a television personality who founded the Kyiv-based Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation, told Bloomberg News late last year.

Even United24, the country’s official fundraising platform, admits it’s been “a challenge to keep everyone’s focus” on Ukraine’s struggle.

But Ukraine still has needs, some of which are being met by contributions from non-government aid groups both large and small. Ordinary Ukrainians continue to donate as much as they can, even if their overall capacity may be diminishing with time.

So much given already

There are several reasons it’s getting harder for those aid groups and charities, say observers. 

For one, donors within Ukraine are by now “exhausting their savings,” said Yuriy Gorodnichenko, a Ukrainian-born professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

And as the war goes on, it’s more challenging to keep Ukraine in the public eye for donors outside the country.

Lesya Granger is the chair and CEO of Mriya Aid, a Canadian not-for-profit that is currently focused on helping train sappers to deal with mines buried beneath Ukrainian soil.

It was founded three years ago and Granger admits there’s less attention on Ukraine now — notwithstanding recent events that have put the country in the spotlight again, such as doubts about aid from the West now that Donald Trump is back in the White House. 

“Donations across the board are down,” she said.

Getting the message out

But one charity has seemingly bucked the trend — United24, a state-run fundraising platform backed by a slick website and the help of Ukraine-friendly celebrity ambassadors.

Less than three years after its launch, the platform reports having raised more than $1 billion US.

Though donations dipped in 2023 (to $336,750,533 US), they reached a record high last year with $424,150,085 US, it told CBC News. 

This money has been used to support a variety of projects, including the purchase of both demining robots and reconnaissance drones, as well as funds to build bomb shelters. 

United24 says most of its donations — nearly $930 million US — have gone to support Ukraine’s armed forces. But not all of its money goes to defence.

Kateryna Odarchenko, a Washington-based political consultant who hails from Ukraine’s Kherson region, is generally skeptical of what large, government-run fundraising efforts are able to accomplish compared to smaller, independent ones.

Yet she sees United24 as having certain strengths — its communications reach and media output among them.

“United24 is not only about money, it is also about awareness,” said Odarchenko, noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some members of his administration have strong backgrounds in media. 

The platform has managed to recruit the assistance of Mark Hamill, Liev Schreiber and other movie stars, as well as athletes and other public figures, to help get the message out about United24 and its projects.

Enduring the Russian invasion has not been easy for Ukraine and its people. The United Nations estimates that more than 12,000 of its civilians have been killed, and Zelenskyy has said more than 45,000 soldiers have died defending their country. 

Despite this toll, Ukrainians remain engaged in supporting their country, and securing its future.

Ukraine’s Rating Sociological Group recently published a poll reporting that 71 per cent of Ukrainians surveyed remain optimistic about their country’s future.

Yuliya Bidenko, an associate professor of political science at Karazin Kharkiv National University, says donating to Ukraine’s fight has become “a culture of the nation.”

The war has changed Ukrainian society, with ordinary people giving whatever they can, even if they can only make small contributions, says Timur Bondaryev, a lawyer and managing partner of Ukraine’s Arzinger law firm.

“Each and every Ukrainian … we keep donating,” said Bondaryev, adding that that’s as true for pensioners as for higher earners.