Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, evacuation from the frontline and temporarily occupied territories has become a matter of life for many charitable organisations and volunteer initiatives. In the most dangerous areas, where government services sometimes cannot reach, there are people and teams working to save civilians every day. Among them are experienced NGOs, foundations with their own transport, doctors, psychologists, and police units that conduct humanitarian missions in the war zone.
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East SOS Charitable Foundation
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the foundation has evacuated more than 89,000 people from Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Dnipro and Sumy regions. The foundation’s team consists of 24 people, has a dozen vehicles and a hotline to receive applications for evacuation. The Foundation also provides evacuees with temporary shelter, especially families with children and people with limited mobility. In addition, it assists in obtaining medical care and restoring lost documents, provides advice on adaptation, and engages social services.
Contacts: website east-sos.org, hotline 0 800 332 614, e-mail info@east-sos.org, social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, etc.).
Ukrainian Red Cross
In April 2022, the humanitarian mission ‘East’ was launched in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It also continues evacuations from all frontline regions, including the border area of Sumy region and frontline communities in Dnipropetrovs’k region.
Contacts: website, phone numbers for evacuation from Sumy region +38 (050) 407 10 43 +38 (050) 538 77 86 +38 (068) 996 52 49, from Dnipropetrovska oblast +38 097 566 46 80.
Special unit of the National Police ‘White Angel’
A special police unit in Donetsk region has been evacuating civilians from shelling in the frontline area since 2014. uk.wikipedia.org. The White Angel groups evacuate civilians from the red and yellow zones, deliver humanitarian aid, provide first aid to the wounded, conduct medical evacuation, transport the dead, document the effects of shelling, and deliver pensions and social benefits. They work mainly in the Pokrovsk, Lyman and Bakhmut directions. However, they can also carry out evacuations in other frontline areas.
Contacts: a single special line 102 (police), as well as phone numbers of the White Angel groups in the districts of Donetsk region (for example, Pokrovsk direction – 066 561 91 02). Official information is available on the website of the National Police of Donetsk region.
Humanitarian mission ‘Proliska’
This is a non-governmental organisation founded in 2014 by volunteers. Initially, it worked along the contact line in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, rebuilding schools and hospitals and providing social support to residents of cut-off villages. Since 2022, the mission has also been organising evacuations from frontline areas and providing comprehensive assistance to vulnerable groups. They carry out evacuations for people with limited mobility and medical evacuations. They bring humanitarian aid. They provide counselling and psychological assistance to IDPs.
Contacts: website, hotline 0 800 888 888, e-mail ngo@proliska.org, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Charitable Foundation ‘Angels of Salvation’
The charity organises evacuations of civilians from war zones and occupied areas. It also provides psychological rehabilitation for war victims. Hotline: 0 800 334 620 (free of charge), website.
Children of the New Generation
A charity based in Dnipro that initially worked with disadvantaged children, but since 2022 has focused on evacuating families from the frontline areas of Donetsk region. Since the beginning of the war, the foundation has organised more than 5,600 evacuations of people (most of them children with their parents) ngchildrenukraine.org. The foundation accommodates evacuees for 21 days in its own shelter in Dnipro and distributes food packages (over 725,000 were distributed to residents of Donetsk region).
Contacts: website, Facebook/Instagram (Children New Generation), phone +38 095 521 4962.
NGO ‘Park and Special Friends’
A volunteer group from Kryvyi Rih, founded for equine-assisted therapy for children with disabilities, which organises the evacuation of residents of Donetsk region during the war. Volunteers of the NGO evacuate people with their pets from the most dangerous villages of the Pokrovska community – Lysivka, Sribne, Leontyvky districts. For the evacuees, they organise free temporary accommodation in Kryvyi Rih for up to 21 days.
Contacts: contact the head of the NGO O. Leontiev by phone +38 096 840 41 02.
NGO Save Ukraine
A volunteer initiative that conducts evacuation flights from the frontline areas (in particular, in the Kherson region).
Contacts: Save Ukraine hotline 0 800 40 98 45 (free of charge), social media.
Project ‘Helping to Leave’
An international platform to help evacuate Ukrainians from the war zones and occupation (partner network of volunteers in Europe and Ukraine). They coordinate departures from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and from Russia. The platform has transported more than 19,000 people to safe regions and provides assistance in further reintegration.
Contacts: call centre +38 (093) 177-6458 (round-the-clock), website.
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