As it continues over time, and in the context of the new conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine loses interest for public opinion and the thousands of NGOs that have appeared to help the Army and civilians who are victims of the war see increasingly difficult to attract volunteers and raise funds.
“Normally I received more than a thousand dollars a month in donations; this month I will barely reach a hundred dollars,” David Brymer, an Israeli-American combat doctor who works as a volunteer in Ukraine instructing soldiers in tactical medicine, tells EFE.
Brymer pays a good part of his expenses out of pocket and compensates for losses with private donations from the United States, which is now suffering from the so-called war fatigue and the emergence of new emergency situations in the Middle East.
“Most of my donations come from synagogues, and now that this conflict has broken out in Israel, many of them are directing their help to organizations that need support in the Middle East,” he explains.
“Everyone is tired of war and many people do not have the financial capacity to continue donating,” he says about another reason for the drop in income. This wear and tear is also seen in Ukraine.
“At the beginning of the war everyone in our group of football fans was willing to help and do something for our project, but in the long run people began to take care of their work and their things and there were only five of us fully involved” Andrí Gulo, a professional in the agricultural sector in Kiev, tells EFE.
Gulo works with his friends from the Dynamo Kiev fan community to find and buy, with his own money and with donations that are increasingly difficult to raise, SUVs that soldiers use to transport supplies near the front.
Since the beginning of the war, initiatives like this have acquired a large number of vehicles for the Army inside and outside Ukraine, which has drastically reduced the supply of SUVs in continental Europe.
After many months buying them in Poland and other countries in continental Europe, Gulo and his friends have had to start looking for them in the United Kingdom, which represents an additional expense when transporting them.
The stagnation of a front line that has not seen significant changes for many months is another factor contributing to donor apathy. On the one hand, the lack of Ukrainian progress has a demoralizing effect.
The fact that the Russian conquest of cities like Kiev or Odessa is no longer a plausible possibility means that some Ukrainians stop paying attention to the war and live as normally as possible in the absence of any prospect of an end to the conflict.
Many volunteers and NGOs begin their requests for help with this message: Remember that the war continues!
The Prytula Foundation is the largest private contributor to the Ukrainian Army. Its press chief, María Pisarenko, explains to EFE that the number of donations remains constant, but that their amount has been reduced by half.
“People still want to help, but they obviously don’t have any more money now than they did last year,” Pisarenko says.
The representative of the Prytula Foundation perceives greater “tolerance” in international public opinion towards Russian attacks that have become normal due to their frequency, and highlights the decisive importance of private military aid to the Army.
Pisarenko gives as an example the FPV (or remote viewing) drones that the Prytula Foundation acquires en masse for soldiers. This type of drone makes it possible to attack enemy targets and compensate, in battles such as the one being fought in the besieged town of Avdivka, for the Ukrainian inferiority in number of soldiers and artillery systems.
In an interview with EFE held in the summer, the actor and head of the Foundation, Serguí Prytula, referred to the fatigue of war that causes the lengthening of the conflict: “The situation is very difficult for everyone, but it cannot be compared with the work that the military does.”
“If they get tired this is going to be very scary,” added this popular comedian turned full-time volunteer. “We have to be at their level, and because of our foundation it will not be the case,” he stressed.