Donating directly to the National Bank of Ukraine

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In theory, we can donate to a new account setup by the National Bank of Ukraine for their armed forces as per

https://ukraine.ua/news/donate-to-the-nbu-fund/

But using the information there for US Dollars, I could not figure out how to xfer money using the mobile app of my bank. Then too, this page

https://bank.gov.ua/en/about/support-the-armed-forces

should take donations using a credit card or using Google Pay. I tried Amex, MasterCard and Visa and they all failed. I also tried Google Pay with MasterCard and that failed too. Google Pay says they do not take Amex.

Another page for humanitarian assistance also failed for me when I used a VISA card thru Google Pay

https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-rahunok-dlya-gumanitarnoyi-dopomogi-ukrayintsyam-postrajdalim-vid-rosiyskoyi-agresiyi

Anyone have any ideas?

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Given the massive levels of corruption in Ukraine, I wouldn’t trust any donation to get where you might like it to go. Maybe a better idea would be to donate to a charity which is helping displaced Ukrainians or something similar.

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wavy, Charlie, OscarCP, Sky

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Every donation involves some trust. You would think the national bank would be trustworthy, especially now.

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I wouldn’t trust it 1 inch. That is probably the same bank that spirits away billions of dollars to individual’s accounts overseas.

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Sky

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samak wrote:

Given the massive levels of corruption in Ukraine

Please provide evidence of this statement.

cheers, Paul

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I hope you don’t mind me butting in, but samak’s statement was hardly a controversial one. Ukraine is widely known as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. Just check the 148 references in the Wikipedia article on it.

Don’t get me wrong, helping the people of Ukraine in this time is a worthy cause, but there must be more productive ways to do it than giving to institutions that have been stealing from their own citizens for years.

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samak, OscarCP, NaNoNyMouse

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There is a joint appeal by the International Red Cross and the International Red Crescent for contributions from member countries to either the Red Cross or the Red Crescent to fund its work in Ukraine:

https://blogs.icrc.org/ir/en/2022/03/international-red-cross-and-red-crescent-movement-appeals-for-250-million-swiss-francs-to-assist-people-affected-by-ukraine-conflict/

There are also direct appeals from several national Red Cross organizations to the same end to the citizens of their countries of operation.

Do a Web search using the “this week” time window and as key words, for example: “Red Cross Ukraine appeal” to find a national branch to donate to.

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samak, Sky

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Then one must realize that any banks in the Ukraine may unfortunately soon be under the control of Russia.  So your money could end up helping Russia and not Ukraine.

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samak, OscarCP

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Further research found that the Red Cross of Ukraine

redcross.org.ua

takes donations using American credit cards.

https://donate.redcrossredcrescent.org/ua/donate/~my-donation

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wavy, samak

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Another option, if you live in the UK, is Disasters Emergency Committee, who have appealed on behalf of fifteen major aid charities.  As a UK taxpayer, you may benefit from Gift Aid, and also, the UK Government will match your donation, pound-for-pound.

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Another great option is to donate to Doctors Without Borders who are helping with relief.

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wavy, OscarCP, Michael432

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Thanks for that suggestion.

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I had the same issue as the OP (Michael432) and am trying to solve it.  I am NOT in need of suggestions for other donations I could make (already did those).  I surely am not interested in hearing about risks if the Russians win or risks of fraud. People can balance these small risks against the risk of loosing a legitimate democracy to a tyrannical dictator.

I wrote the same bank and was told:

The top mistakes include:
1. The payer has not completed the 3d-secure verification 2. The payer did not enter the payment amount 3. Payment with a refusal code of 9875, according to Visa, means a refusal, a possible fraud. Most likely, some issuers have included Ukraine in the list of risky countries and are giving refusals. Here only the holder’s appeal to his bank with confirmation of his desire to make an operation and a request to remove the block 4. Refusal with the MPI code means that the check for 3d-secure was not completed successfully and does not allow sending a debit transaction to the card issuer’s bank. here you can check with the holder to find out what he sees after clicking ‘pay’ – does the window open to check it, does he close it, does he receive a confirmation code for entering? If any of this does not work, then the client can ask his bank why he is not able to pass 3DS authentication.
I hope this helps.

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SueW

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