The war has been going on in our country for almost 11 months. There is probably not a single family in our country that has not been affected by military operations on the territory of Ukraine.
Photo: fcdynamo.comFC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation from the first days of a full-scale invasion have been involved in the work to provide assistance in many areas.
1. Evacuation of the population
This activity was most in demand from the very first days of the invasion, when the Russian army carried out armed attempts to seize a huge number of Ukrainian territories using all types of weapons, as a result of which entire cities were destroyed.
It was for the purpose of protecting the population of these cities that all possible vehicles were used, including the buses of football teams to evacuate the civilian population.
So, in particular, many people were evacuated from the eastern regions of the country, including from Kramatorsk.
2. Support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine
From the very beginning of the war, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation were convinced that victory can be achieved only if our entire nation is united, including big business. The financial support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other paramilitary formations of our country is especially important, given that military operations require a huge amount of resources.
For this, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation began to provide targeted financial support to the Ukrainian army, including through the purchase of necessary technical equipment and essentials (in particular, personal hygiene products, which are so in demand on the front line, given the conditions of stay military).
In particular, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund provided the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the requested technical means of communication and reconnaissance drones, repeatedly purchased and transferred vehicles for the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including cars and a boat.
The structures of the Dynamo Children and Youth Academy were also involved in supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thus, with the participation of the Dynamo Academy, the keys to a specialized vehicle prepared for combat missions, as well as other necessary equipment, were handed over to the border service unit.
Throughout the entire period of the war, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation also focused on providing the armed forces with personal hygiene products, which is undoubtedly a necessity at the front, especially given the conditions of a long stay at the front in difficult weather conditions.
So, lately, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund have transferred more than five thousand tons of humanitarian cargo, primarily personal hygiene products (napkins, antiseptics, etc.), food and medical equipment, to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the State border service of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and unprotected segments of the population. The total value of the transferred cargo is estimated at millions of dollars.
At the moment, in fact, the volume of assistance is constantly increasing. So, at the end of December, the relevant hygiene products were handed over to the Ministry of Health, the State Border Service and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
In addition, at the moment, about a million cans of juice in special packaging are delivered by sea, which will be donated to the needs of the army in order to fill the soldiers' diet with essential vitamins. This largest cargo is currently being shipped by sea from the United States of America.
It should be noted that FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation provide most of this humanitarian assistance in cooperation with major charitable organizations in the United States of America, in particular the World of Connections and the Human Kindness Project.
The Surkis Brothers Foundation also supports those people who were forced to leave the territory of Ukraine after the start of the war. In particular, from the very beginning of the military invasion of Ukraine, the Surkis Brothers Fund transferred funds and provided humanitarian assistance to the Jewish community in Austria, which increased significantly due to the families of Ukrainian Jews who were forced to flee to Austria.
3. Financing of infrastructure facilities in Ukraine
In addition to the above assistance directly to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation took responsibility for the restoration of a number of infrastructure facilities located in territories that have already been liberated, but suffered from the Russian invasion.
In particular, after the liberation of the Kyiv region, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund signed a memorandum with the Ministry of Health and the Kyiv Regional Military Administration on the restoration of an outpatient clinic in the village of Gurovshchina, Buchansky district, Kyiv region, which was completely burned out from the inside as a result of tank and mortar shelling.
Based on the results of the technical examination of the building, an expert opinion was made that the building was not subject to reconstruction, but the construction of a new facility was necessary to continue medical practice and serve patients.
Therefore, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund have undertaken to restore the outpatient clinic according to international standards and equip it with modern equipment at the expense of FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund.
At the moment, work on the construction of a new outpatient clinic building is already entering the finish line and will be completed in the near future.
Thus, in the near future, residents of the village of Gurovshchina will be able to receive proper medical care without having to travel to remote medical facilities.
In addition to this facility, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation also helped to restore a kindergarten in the village of Byshev, Kyiv region, in which the roof, windows, ceilings and interior walls were damaged by the blast wave.
In this case, given the need for urgent restoration of the windows and roof of the building, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Foundation decided to immediately begin all the necessary work, and immediately purchased the necessary materials.
It should be noted that at the moment all the work has been completed, and on December 19, 2022, the opening of the kindergarten restored at the expense of the Surkis Brothers Foundation took place.
In addition, given the changed strategy of the Russian troops, namely the launch of missile strikes on the critical energy system, FC Dynamo Kyiv, in cooperation with the Dutch company Odink & Koenderink Nederland B.V. delivered a powerful 550 kW diesel generator to the city of Boguslav, Kyiv region, which will guarantee the uninterrupted operation of the city.
Also, at the moment, the project of the Surkis Brothers Foundation is under implementation to provide all outpatient clinics without exception in the most affected areas with generators to ensure their uninterrupted operation in conditions of frequent power outages.
4. Fundraising activities
From the first months of the war, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund focused not only on allocating personal funds to support and restore Ukraine, but also on fundraising activities - raising funds from all over the world in order to accumulate the financial resources of all those who want to help Ukraine .
The main way to raise these funds was to hold a series of charity matches under the slogan: “Match for Peace! Let's Stop the War!", which we announced already a month after the start of hostilities.
The first match of this series was the duel between Legia and Dynamo, which took place on April 12, 2022.
As a result of this match, more than 220,000 euros were raised, which were donated to organizations supporting Ukrainian refugees. At the same time, over 700,000 euros were raised in the first five matches, which were donated to charity.
In the future, matches were held with such giants as Borussia Dortmund (which raised more than 400 thousand euros), Dynamo Zagreb, Galatasaray, Basel and other clubs.
Also on July 29, 2022, the Dynamo match against the Everton club took place, the profit from which in the amount of 250 thousand pounds was transferred to the restoration of the Chernihiv city hospital.
In total, Dynamo played 15 matches under the slogan “Match for Peace! Let's Stop the War!", which allowed not only to accumulate about 1.5 million euros of financial resources to support Ukraine, but also to draw the attention of the world community to the catastrophic consequences of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, since the events (football matches and concerts on central squares), organized by FC Dynamo Kyiv and the Surkis Brothers Foundation, showed more than 100 countries live.
It should be noted that within the framework of the above-mentioned series of charity matches with the participation of FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund, two large-scale charity concerts were held.
The first concert was held on May 29, 2022 in Berlin near the Brandenburg Gate under the slogan "Save Ukraine", the purpose of which was to raise funds for modern surgical X-ray machines from the S-arch. This concert gathered more than 40 thousand people. At the same time, Igor Surkis also spoke at it as the president of FC Dynamo.
Based on the results of fundraising, it was possible to fully finance the purchase of this expensive equipment for the city of Kharkov.
The second charity concert was held in Amsterdam under the slogan "Embrace Ukraine", the purpose of which was to draw attention to the issue of the need to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate member of the European Union. This concert was attended by more than 15 thousand people.
It is important to note that in October 2022, FC Dynamo Kyiv became a partner of the state fundraising platform UNITED24, signing a memorandum with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health, according to which all the funds raised by us will be used to restore the destroyed hospital in Chernihiv.
As a result, at the moment, the reconstruction of the X-ray department of the hospital in the city of Chernihiv has been fully funded.
In addition, thanks to the funds raised with the support of FC Dynamo Kyiv, state-of-the-art X-ray machines were purchased for hospitals in Kharkiv.
Such activity of FC Dynamo Kyiv and the Surkis Brothers Fund was highly appreciated at the state level. So, at the end of December, for supporting Ukraine in these difficult moments of its history, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky presented gratitude to FC Dynamo Kyiv for his invaluable contribution to the activities of the UNITED24 fundraising platform.
This once again underlines the importance of the contribution to the support of Ukraine that we make to our country.
5. Social financing
Also, an important aspect of our charitable activities has become targeted targeted assistance to various categories of the population affected by the war.
So, from the first days of the war, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) announced the launch of a program for charitable financing of hospitals helping the wounded during the hostilities, as well as educational institutions, which received gratitude from the Kyiv authorities for the immediate transfer of funds to help medical institutions.
In the first week since the announcement of this program, in addition to helping hospitals, assistance was provided to 11 orphanages and educational organizations. In total, FC Dynamo Kyiv and the Surkis Brothers Fund directly financed medical institutions in the amount of more than one million euros.
Also, in the first month of the war, FC Dynamo (Kyiv) and the Surkis Brothers Fund provided full financial support to ensure the conditions for the stay of Ukrainian Paralympic athletes in the Western Rehabilitation and Sports Center located in the Lviv region.
And only in August 2022, the Surkis Brothers Foundation took care of the acquisition, delivery and distribution of more than 100 tons of humanitarian cargo for vulnerable segments of the population. In particular, people received food, personal hygiene products and essential goods.
At the moment, the total amount of humanitarian aid provided is more than 5,000 (five thousand) tons.
In addition, FC Dynamo Kyiv provided targeted assistance to individual children with severe forms of illness. As an example, we can pay attention to the provision of two-year-old Makar, who suffers from cerebral palsy, with a special orthopedic device to maintain the vertical position of the body, and a two-week trip to an international rehabilitation clinic was paid for him, where he will undergo a rehabilitation course of treatment.
