Update from our fellow co-operatives in Ukraine

01 June 2022

We continue to stand by our fellow co-operatives in Ukraine who truly embody the co-operative spirit as they selflessly serve their communities, whether in Ukraine or as refugees fleeing the devastation.

In response to their plight, the international co-operative community have been channelling funds to Ukrainian co-operatives to support their immediate needs and their rebuilding efforts. The peak body for co-operatives, COOP Ukraine (Ukrkoopspilka), opened an international account so that they can receive aid from foreign co-operators.

We have received the following correspondence from Illia Gorokhovskyi, Chairman of the Board of Coop Ukraine, to thank Australian co-operatives for their support. We offer our colleagues our solidarity and hope that this conflict will soon come to a peaceful end.

Dear colleagues,

On behalf of Ukrainian cooperators, I would like to express our sincere gratitude for your support and assistance in this hard time. 

For more than three months, Ukrainians have been struggling for their independence, territorial integrity of their homeland and the right to live peacefully.

In this short period, millions of Ukrainians became refugees, hundreds of thousands remained homeless, and tens of thousands of civilians died from the hands of russian occupiers. During this time, we have become different, and our lives will never be the same as before February 24, 2022.

But we know that victory is ours, and a lot depends on us to achieve it.

Cooperatives in Ukraine should work and provide the local population with the necessary goods, and the state budget should receive timely paid taxes.

International assistance which we have received from the Australian cooperative movement will help restore damaged or destroyed cooperative facilities. Therefore, I would like to sincerely thank you for such significant direct financial assistance provided to us by the Australian cooperators. All of it will go to rebuilding cooperation, its further development, and our peaceful future.

I guess the victory is near!

In cooperation,

Best Regards,

Illia Gorokhovskyi
Chairman of the Board of Coop Ukraine

Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash