Underground Thriller Coverage: An Update on What CUs are Doing in Response to War in Ukraine
The Credit Union Connection
The tools and insight you need to help credit unions advance your communities and movement.
It’s been nearly three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and credit unions in that country, Poland and the U.S. have continued to respond to help victims of the war, including those displaced to Poland.
Among the responses has been the creation of the Via Stella Foundation, which was jointly founded by Poland’s credit unions; Brian Branch, the former president and CEO of the World Council of CUs, and Mitchell Stankovic Associates. That foundation has done extensive fundraising to help purchase ambulances, provide medical care to women, to support refugees and to help Ukrainian orphans, among other efforts.
Credit unions gathered here were offered an update on what CUs are doing as the war continues, including a view on why they should care, by Branch, who participated in a Q&A during Mitchell Stankovic’s Underground Thriller event in Las Vegas.
Zach Christensen, director of communications and digital marketing with Mitchell Stankovic, acted as moderator.
Christensen: Update us on what is taking place in Ukraine.
Branch: What we see a lot is Russian strikes on the electrical infrastructure and the energy system. The number of missile or drone strikes that happen in Ukraine is very large every day, approaching 100 and sometimes over 500. We also see strikes on water systems and hospital systems.
What you don't see in the news as much is the devastation caused by mines. Ukraine today is the country that has the largest number of civilian casualties due to mines; 30% to 40% of Ukraine is infested with mines. That's approximately the size of the state to Florida. Very often, when we're working with refugees in Poland, they want to go home but they're afraid to take their children because they're afraid the children will step on mines. The farmers have difficulty farming because their fields are infested with mines.
Incoming Threat? Check the App
As bad as it is, when you're in Ukraine some of the things that are most striking is the determination and the resilience of the Ukrainian people. At one point we had taken an ambulance into Ukraine and we were unloading equipment for a children's hospital and the janitors, the doctors and the president of the hospital were unloading equipment and supplies, when everybody stopped and pulled out their phones and then went back to work. They have an app provided by the government. When there's a missile or a drone strike coming in it tells them where's it coming from: over Belarus, over the Russian border, over the Black Sea, and where it is going to land. If you're not in the target area you go back to work. If you're in the target area you seek shelter.
We’ve also done a lot of work with some of the Polish paramedic volunteers. Whereas we focus on civilian casualties, they focus on military casualties and they help us vet our ambulances, they help us vet our medical equipment. They do trauma care training.
‘Struck by Resilience’
I remember a conversation with some of these Polish volunteers who were working close to the front lines where the greatest number of casualties are from soldiers that step on minds. They lose a foot, they lose a leg and then they rush to get them to medical care. They go to Kiev, they're fitted with a prosthetic and they go back to the battle lines because they can still run, they can still hold a rifle, they can still do electronics.
We were, frankly, just really struck with the resilience and the perseverance of these people.
Christensen: Why is it important for credit unions here in the U.S. to support this, and what is the most pressing need?
Branch: We still get a lot of requests from communities to help them with ambulances. It used to be that we were sending pregnant women, sick children, sick elderly people to Polish hospitals and now we get requests from communities that are asking, “Can you provide us with an ambulance?” because their ambulances have been taken by the military, or they've been struck by Russian rockets. And they have large numbers of civilians who are stepping on mines and they need to get them very quickly to hospital for medical care.
In the winter time we focus on trying to get them generators, which make a big difference in the morbidity of communities and their ability to survive.
Why Should Anyone Care?
Why should we care? Frankly, from Washington, from New York, from Brussels we hear abstract discussions about we need to protect the ability of people for self-determination and their national sovereignty, and the ability to resist another country that tries to use violence to take territory away from them. At the economic level, this conflict has a lot to do with rising food prices. Ukraine is a major grain producer. It has a lot to do with the volatility of gas and oil prices and utility bills. It has a lot to do with cyber security, cyber attacks and the disinformation we've seen over the last few years here in the U.S. It’s a major part of the Ukrainian Russian war and it's one of the major reasons why we see such an increase in cyber threats to our financial institutions. That leads to regulatory requirements and the costs involved with that.
‘All Evil Needs’
At the basic humanitarian level, credit unions are about helping people in need. That’s why the Polish credit unions and U.S. credit unions created Via Stella, to help these communities. I often think of the words of an Irishman, Edmund Burke, and words that Martin Luther King meditated on when he was in the Birmingham jail: “All evil needs to do to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” And that's why we do something
For info: www.viastella.pl
Here's what's hot at The Credit Union Connection:
MTs: Sarah Cooke, MBA (she/her) Mitchell Stankovic Via Stella Foundation Brian Branch Zachary Christensen, CUDE OnPath Federal Credit Union CU Strategic Planning D. Hilton Associates, Inc. NCUA Addition Financial Credit Union Envision Credit Union League of Southeastern Credit Unions & Affiliates Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Velera The Knoble #creditunions #Ukraine #budget #merger #reform #fraudprevention