March 2024
Amazon has donated almost 6,000 Fire Tablets and Kindle to children in need in Ukraine, in collaboration with the Olena Zelenska Foundation
In order to better understand the technological needs of children in Ukraine, we’ve been working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science and the Olena Zelenska Foundation.
This contact has led to 5,650 Fire Tablets and Kindle being delivered to Ukrainian youngsters in need. These Amazon devices will benefit the children’s education and their digital upskilling for the future.
In late December 2023 the Olena Zelenska Foundation, with the help of Digital Poland Association, collected the Fire Tablets and Kindle from the Amazon warehouse in Sosnowiec, Poland. The relevant ministries along with the Foundation will now be responsible for distributing the devices to Ukrainian children across the country.
Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine and founder of the Olena Zelenska Foundation stated that "because of the war, nearly 1 million Ukrainian children are forced to study online. The safety of our children is our priority. But beyond safety, we want to ensure their future. For this, we need educational gadgets. With the support of foreign partners, my Foundation has already collected and provided about 50,000 laptops and tablets to schoolchildren and teachers”.
Whilst Dmytro Zavhorodnii, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine for digital development, digital transformations and digitalization stated “I'm grateful to our partners at Amazon for their important contribution and support of our initiative!".
On a recent trip to the UK, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska met with AWS Managing Director for EMEA, Tanuja Randery, to discuss the work of the Foundation, the importance of ensuring the continuity of education for the children of Ukraine, and the ongoing collaboration between the two organisations.
This donation is part of an overall total of 25,000 devices provided by Amazon to support Ukraine, with an additional 19,000 distributed to Ukrainians who have been displaced around Europe. For example, Amazon has donated to schools, hospitals, and community institutions in Poland.
For more information, please see the press release from the Olena Zelenska Foundation here.
September 2023
Amazon continues to support Ukrainian small businesses to boost exports
Amazon is continuing to support Ukrainian selling partners by offering a 0% referral fee across all of our European stores, until 7th September 2024. The referral fee is the percentage normally paid by companies selling on Amazon for each product sold.
Amazon’s Vice President of EU Seller Services, Xavier Flamand, and Vice President for EU Public Policy, Lucy C. Cronin, wrote a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, to outline the extended commitment. Read more.
June 21
Amazon supports BecomingX Ukraine to help equip Ukrainians with digital skills to enhance their employability
Amazon provided seed funding, learning resources, and operational expertise for BecomingX Ukraine, a digital education platform being developed to help Ukrainians build digital skills, enhance their employability, and gain the confidence to succeed, as they look to rebuild their country. BecomingX Ukraine was co-founded by adventurer Bear Grylls, an ambassador for President Zelensky’s charity UNITED24, and the new learning platform will launch in September.
December 1
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation highlights the impact of AWS’s technology support
On November 29, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and AWS Director of Government Transformation Liam Maxwell signed a memorandum of understanding confirming continued cooperation in 2023.
At the signing event, the Deputy Prime Minister talked about the crucial role AWS has played in helping the Ukraine government maintain continuity and provide critical services to citizens since the onset of the war.
As part of this discussion, Fedorov said, “AWS made one of the biggest contributions to Ukraine’s victory by providing the Ukrainian government with access and resources for migrating to the cloud and securing critical information.” To date, Amazon has committed more than $75 million in support to help the people of Ukraine address both immediate and long-term needs. Amazon’s support includes the donation of millions of critical relief products—from medical supplies for Ukraine hospitals to blankets, food, toys, and books for refugees crossing the border to devices to help Ukrainian children continue their education as well as cloud computing support to help the government preserve vital Ukrainian government, education, and banking institution data, and more.
October 12
AWS launches IT Skills 4U to help Ukrainians gain skills and start tech careers
Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched IT Skills 4U, a free and comprehensive workforce-development initiative to connect Ukrainians with AWS-designed skills training and career-support services. Ukrainians around the world can choose from a range of AWS-designed courses, based on their level of information technology (IT) knowledge and learning goals.
Course offerings range from cohort-based, 12-week programs to digital on-demand training, which learners can take at their own pace. Additionally, AWS is delivering dedicated, in-person, instructor-led classes in Poland. Through the program, Ukrainians can access free AWS Certification vouchers to help individuals take relevant exams and earn industry-recognized credentials that they can put on their resumes.
IT Skills 4U also helps individuals connect to cloud jobs through personalized career support, job fairs, and other services. The program offers resume writing assistance, interview preparation sessions, and English and Polish language-learning classes. More than 30 AWS customers and partners have committed to offering Ukrainian learners permanent jobs, internships, apprenticeships, and traineeships in cloud computing roles. Read more.
October 10
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK thanks Amazon employees at company meeting
Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko attended Amazon’s global employee All-Hands Meeting in London to thank the company and its employees for supporting Ukraine’s government and the Ukrainian people.
During the employee address, Prystaiko said: “I am grateful to each and every one of you for supplying us with medicine, warm clothes, food, money. You open your wallets, your homes, and most importantly your hearts to many Ukrainians—millions of us—who had to find shelter outside of their own nation.”
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Amazon has donated more than $45 million in financial support, products, and cloud computing credits to nonprofits working on the ground to help the people and institutions of Ukraine. In addition to providing financial and technology support to Ukraine, Amazon has also provided more than 2 million aid items, such as medical supplies and critical relief products.
Just 10 days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Amazon set up two humanitarian aid hubs in Poland and Slovakia. The hubs continue to ship essential products, such as medical equipment and school supplies, to help refugees displaced by the war.
In July, the Ukrainian government awarded Amazon Web Services the Ukrainian Peace Prize for helping the country, including by keeping vital government services operating, supporting Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure, and assisting the country in preserving its digital history.
October 5
Amazon supports Ukrainian small businesses
To support and help our Ukrainian selling partners and their businesses, Amazon has removed the referral fee for small businesses that ship from Ukraine and sell on our European stores. Read more.
September 1
How Amazon is helping Ukrainian students get back to school
From donating 32,000 backpacks with school supplies to providing 25,000 devices, Amazon is helping Ukrainian children access the tools they need to keep learning. Amazon has worked in countries across Europe to donate school supplies to help young Ukrainian refugees prepare for the new school year. Volunteers have also helped set up multimedia centers, complete with Amazon devices, to ensure the children have access language and learning support. Read more.
July 18
How AWS is helping Ukrainian students continue learning
With millions of families displaced, hundreds of schools damaged or destroyed, and infrastructure under constant threat, the education of Ukrainian students is at risk. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is working with schools and universities affected by the war in Ukraine to expand remote learning opportunities, preserve students’ research data, and provide training and services to refugees. Read more.
July 6
AWS receives Peace Prize from Ukraine government
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Amazon Web Services (AWS) the Ukraine Peace Prize for the support AWS has shown the Ukraine government and the Ukrainian people. Teams from AWS have been working with Ukraine government officials to help keep vital government services operating, support Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure, assist the country in preserving its digital history, and more. The prize was handed to the AWS team by Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, who said that AWS, “literally saved our digital infrastructure, [by enabling] state registries and critical databases to migrate to the AWS cloud.” AWS is honored to be working alongside the Ukrainian government and other private and public organizations to support the people of Ukraine. We will continue to aid the Ukraine government and the Ukrainian people, bringing our technical expertise and services to those who need them.
July 1
Ukrainians reskill and upskill with AWS Cloud courses
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is now making two training programs, AWS Educate and AWS Academy, more accessible to Ukrainians. AWS Educate is a free online self-paced learning program. Anyone with an internet connection can access a large library of self-paced training and resources for new-to-cloud learners in Ukrainian as well as 11 other languages. AWS Educate provides an opportunity to learn and practice cloud skills, and helps learners connect with potential employers looking for cloud talent and posting job openings on AWS Educate. The AWS Educate job board currently lists over 30,000 job opportunities globally at AWS, AWS customer organizations, and AWS Partners. Similarly, AWS is working with two Polish universities—Warsaw School of Computer Science and WSB University in Dabrowa Gornicza—to make the AWS Academy Cloud Foundations course available to Ukrainian refugees. The course provides a detailed overview of cloud concepts, AWS core services, security, architecture, pricing, and support. This is an AWS-designed curriculum provided to the universities for free through AWS Academy and delivered in collaboration with Cloud Team, an AWS Training Partner. Through AWS’s collaborative effort, refugees can access the three-month course without enrolling at either university.
June 20
Amazon helps Ukrainians resettle with free delivery of essential products
Amazon is partnering with Welcome.US, local resettlement agencies, and community organizations to offer Ukrainian families free delivery and a total value of $2 million in donated products to help them resettle in the U.S. Read more.
June 9
Safeguarding Ukraine’s data to preserve its present and build its future
AWS employees help secure vital data so the Ukrainian government, education, and banking institutions can continue to serve Ukrainian people. Read more.
June 7
Amazon employees pack 200,000 hygiene kits for Ukrainian refugees
Amazon has committed to deliver 200,000 hygiene kits to partner charities, bringing together our employee volunteer network with Clean the World, a social enterprise focused on providing recycled soap and hygiene supplies to those who have limited access to these products. The Amazon-donated kits consist of basic supplies—including soap, shampoo, and toothpaste—and will be distributed to families in Ukraine and refugees in surrounding countries. Read more.
May 12
How Amazon employees helped a peer’s family escape the war in Ukraine
Daria Sokol shares her parents’ harrowing story of fleeing the war and the way colleagues around the globe supported them with meals, lodging, and kindness. Learn more.
AWS-powered app helps healthcare workers track medical supplies in Ukraine
The Ukrainian Ministry of Health and Ukraine public health agencies sought a centralized tool that would help doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers request and track incoming supplies and monitor capacity at nearby hospitals, to better treat the wounded. With support from Amazon Web Services, XCH—a provider of situational awareness and incident management software tools to support health care providers in times of crisis—launched the Ukrainian Humanitarian Aid and Assistance System to facilitate the communications required to provide emergency responders with real-time data for supply management. Learn more.
April 22
Amazon continues donating to help Ukrainian refugees
The company’s donations now total over $35 million including financial support, products, and cloud computing credits. Read more.
April 18
Amazon joins Welcome.US CEO Council
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy joins 35 senior executives from other companies to launch a new effort to support resettlement, upskilling, and hiring of refugees coming to the U.S. Learn more.
April 14
Amazon donates more than 30,000 medical supplies to hospitals in Ukraine
The Amazon U.S. disaster relief hub in Atlanta, Georgia is partnering with a medical non-governmental organization to send supplies to doctors and nurses on the front lines. Read more.
April 11
Digital Ukrainian artifacts saved by cultural heritage professionals using AWS
AWS supports grassroots organization Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online to replicate and securely store Ukraine’s digital content focused on culture and history. Read more.
April 8
Amazon offers free legal resources to help Ukrainian refugees
More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the conflict in the country, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In response to the humanitarian crisis, more than 150 lawyers at Amazon and its pro bono partners have teamed up from the U.S., Europe, Mexico, India, and Australia to provide free legal assistance to organizations that are helping Ukrainian refugees. Read more.
March 31
Amazon opens second humanitarian aid hub in Poland
New humanitarian hub in Poland to help Ukrainian refugees, along with the previously-opened hub in Slovakia. Read more.
March 28
AWS contributes technology resources to support humanitarian relief
Over the past month, nonprofit, government, and commercial customers have requested assistance in accelerating important humanitarian efforts that are helping millions of refugees and people within Ukraine and surrounding countries. Read more.
March 24
Amazon launches employment support program for refugees
Amazon has launched Welcome Door, a new program to provide refugees employed by the company with additional resources and support, including free legal assistance. Ukrainian refugees hired by Amazon will have access to this new initiative, which will be available in the U.S next month and expand globally by the end of this year. Read more.
March 23
Amazon launches humanitarian aid hub in Slovakia
Built in just 10 days, Amazon’s new humanitarian hub will help relief organizations provide faster support to Ukrainian refugees. Read more.
22 March
Amazon signs The Tent Partnership for Refugees
More than 3 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Ukraine. We are proud to support immediate and longer-term needs of Ukrainians through the Tent Partnership. Learn more.
14 March
Amazon is launching a donation Wish List with Save the Children
Read more.
08 March
Updates to Amazon’s retail, entertainment, and AWS businesses
Amazon has suspended shipment of retail products to customers based in Russia and Belarus and will no longer provide customers with access to Prime Video in Russia. Read more.
04 March
Amazon’s cybersecurity assistance for Ukraine
Note: This post was updated on March 8 to include the fact that AWS is no longer accepting new sign-ups based in Russia or Belarus.
AWS has been working closely with Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure. Teams of Account Managers, Security Specialists, Solutions Architects, and other technical professionals are working around the clock to help customers and partners at this critical time. Read more.
28 February
Amazon is working with NGOs and employees to offer immediate support to the people of Ukraine
Amazon is donating $5 million to organizations that are providing critical support on the ground in the Ukraine and matching up to $5 million in additional donations from employees.
28 March
AWS contributes technology resources to support humanitarian relief
Over the past month, nonprofit, government, and commercial customers have requested assistance in accelerating important humanitarian efforts that are helping millions of refugees and people within Ukraine and surrounding countries. Amazon Web Services (AWS) technologies and experts have been supporting a range of activities, including powering applications that are facilitating the intake of Ukrainian refugees at border crossings, providing technology to help establish safe evacuation routes, setting up emergency internet connectivity, and enabling secure communications.
We are working closely with international aid organizations like Help.NGO, which specializes in emergency response, by providing technology resources that are supporting refugee needs. We are also working with local Ukrainian organizations, such as Optima School, the country’s largest distance learning school, to scale up and support the thousands of displaced students who now need access to online education.
Because of the complexity of the work on the ground and the evolving security landscape, technology assistance can have an outsized impact on the success of relief efforts. This is why AWS is committing $15 million in cloud computing credits, and technical expertise, to continue supporting local and global organizations addressing this humanitarian crisis. Existing customers that would like to access these resources to further their efforts should reach out to their account managers, while new customers can get started here.
We are thankful to be working with and supporting our customers who are tirelessly bringing aid to refugees at this critical time, and we will continue to stand with and support Ukraine.
23 March
Amazon launches humanitarian aid hub to help Ukrainian refugees
In just 10 days, Amazon teams from around the world came together to build a new humanitarian aid hub in Eastern Europe—converting 5,000 square meters of warehouse space in Slovakia, previously used for customer fulfilment, into a facility that helps get much-needed supplies to Ukrainian refugees. This is the largest such hub Amazon has ever built, and it works in concert with the company’s broader infrastructure, innovative technologies, and global logistics network to provide critical supplies to front-line organizations as quickly and efficiently as possible.
With the hub up and running, a network of Amazon fulfilment centers across Europe is now preparing and delivering more than four million critical supplies donated by both Amazon and its customers—including shelter materials, hygiene items, blankets, and clothing. Working backwards from refugee needs, Amazon teams assess what supplies must be donated directly and source them, procure any missing items, and then consolidate, pack, and ship the supplies needed by charities to do their lifesaving work. Customers in Europe can donate to support these efforts through dedicated Wish Lists on Amazon’s European stores.
As these critical supplies come in to Amazon’s European network, the Amazon Transportation Services team is shipping them to the new hub in Slovakia, where space is exclusively carved out for the relief efforts. Once the products arrive at the hub in Slovakia, the donated supplies are distributed to displaced refugees in partnership with charities including Save The Children and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The strategic location of the Slovakia humanitarian aid hub will significantly expedite the movement of relief supplies throughout Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, and Czech Republic to quickly help Ukrainian children and families in need.
Launching this hub in less than 10 days was a huge team effort, and it’s gratifying to see much-needed supplies already flowing through and making their way to people in need. We’re thankful to our customers for their generosity and to our teams and our partners for their work and dedication to supporting refugees at this critical time, and we know this will be a long-term effort. If you’d like to offer support, you can do so by visiting Amazon’s Wish Lists in Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
14 March
Amazon is launching a donation Wish List with Save the Children
We are expanding our collaboration with Save the Children, which is working in Ukraine and surrounding countries to provide children and families with immediate aid, essential supplies, and psychosocial support. We’ve already donated over $1.5 million to Save the Children, and together we have created a Wish List of items that customers based in the UK, Germany (including Polish customers), Italy and Spain can donate from our UK, German, Italian and Spanish Amazon stores. We will adjust items on the list depending on need, and we’re making sure those items get to Save the Children through our logistics network. Thank you to our customers, employees, and partners for supporting the people affected at this critical time.
08 March
Updates to Amazon’s retail, entertainment, and AWS businesses in Russia and Belarus
Given the ongoing situation in Russia and Ukraine, we’ve taken additional actions in the region. We’ve suspended shipment of retail products to customers based in Russia and Belarus, and we will no longer be accepting new Russia and Belarus-based AWS sign-ups and Amazon third-party sellers. We are also suspending access to Prime Video for customers based in Russia, and we will no longer be taking orders for New World, which is the only video game we sell directly in Russia.
As a reminder, unlike some other U.S. technology providers, Amazon and AWS have no data centers, infrastructure, or offices in Russia, and we have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government.
We’re continuing to partner with several NGOs and organizations to support the immense humanitarian needs in the region. Amazon donated $5 million to support those impacted. We continue to match our employees’ donations, and we’re happy to report that over 10,000 employees have donated to the effort. Tens of thousands of customers around the world have also made donations via our homepages, and we’re making sure those funds get to Save the Children and the Red Cross on the ground.
04 March
Amazon’s cybersecurity assistance for Ukraine
Alongside supplying humanitarian relief and support to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), to help those affected by the violence, AWS has been working closely with Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure. Teams of Account Managers, Security Specialists, Solutions Architects, and other technical professionals are working around the clock to help customers and partners at this critical time. We are helping these customers employ security best practices, through following our Well-Architected Framework, to ensure that workloads are protected. In other cases, we are building and supplying technical services and tools to customers in Ukraine to help them securely migrate their on-premises infrastructure onto AWS in order to protect it from any potential physical or virtual attack.
For several weeks, we have been partnering closely with Ukrainian IT organizations to fend off attacks and working with organizations in Ukraine, and around the world, to share real-time, relevant intelligence. As a result, our teams have seen new malware signatures and activity from a number of state actors we monitor. As this activity has ramped up, our teams and technologies detected the threats, learned the patterns, and placed remediation tools directly into the hands of customers. As always, our teams are constantly learning from the intelligence we collect to continue evolving protections for our infrastructure. We employ a ‘follow the sun’ model where our teams track new threat intelligence 24/7 and are able to quickly respond to issues. Our security teams are sharing this intelligence with governments and IT organizations that we partner closely with from Europe, North America, and around the world to equip critical infrastructure owners and operators with additional information to protect their facilities.
While we are seeing an increase in activity of malicious state actors, we are also seeing a higher operational tempo by other malicious actors. We have seen several situations where malware has been specifically targeted at charities, NGOs, and other aid organizations in order to spread confusion and cause disruption. In these particularly egregious cases, malware has been targeted at disrupting medical supplies, food, and clothing relief. We’ll continue to work hard to protect these customers and will continue to work closely with them as they carry out their much-needed work to help those impacted by this terrible conflict.
Our public sector teams partner closely with governments to understand their security needs, responding quickly with support and guidance. In the lead up to this conflict, we consulted with the Ukrainian government, nations across the European Union, the European Commission, the U.S. government, NATO, and other organizations. AWS remains committed to providing security expertise and support, as mentioned in Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy’s message on Twitter to the people of Ukraine.
Unlike other U.S. technology providers, AWS has no data centers, infrastructure, or offices in Russia, and we have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government. We have also stopped allowing new sign-ups for AWS in Russia and Belarus. Our biggest customers using AWS in Russia are companies who are headquartered outside of the country and have some development teams there. AWS has clear terms of service where if a customer is using AWS services to threaten, incite, promote, or actively encourage violence, terrorism, or other serious harm, they will not be permitted to use our services. Any customer we know of who is participating in this type of behavior will have their access to AWS suspended.
As this conflict continues, AWS and Amazon are actively assisting and will carry on doing so into the future for both the people of Ukraine and around the world. We will continue working to support the relief efforts and to bring our security expertise and services to help to everyone that needs them.
We will also continue to share updates and progress on our efforts.
28 February
Amazon is working with NGOs and employees to offer immediate support to the people of Ukraine.
Like many of you around the world, we’re watching what’s happening in Ukraine with horror, concern, and heavy hearts. While we have no direct operations in Ukraine, we have employees and partners who are from or have a deep connection to the country.
Over the past several days, we’ve worked across Amazon to understand how we can best help those who are affected by the violence. It’s difficult for any company without a local presence to provide direct support in a war zone, so we’re donating $5 million to organizations that are providing critical support on the ground, including UNICEF, UNHCR, World Food Program, Red Cross, Polska Akcja Humanitarna, and Save the Children.
We’ve also heard from employees that they want to help, so we’re matching up to $5 million in additional donations from our team to those organizations. For customers who want to help, we’re adding donation buttons to the homepages of our websites in the U.S., UK, Poland, and Germany, and will waive our fees for payment processing.
In addition to providing financial support for relief efforts on the ground in Ukraine, we’re also working to support our teams and Ukrainian immigrants in other ways. For example, we gave employees in Poland additional time off to take care of themselves and their families, and we’re working with Ukrainian nationals to expedite immigration work visas if they’ve relocated.
The recovery from the war will take many years, and we’ll continue working with NGOs, our employees, and our partners to support the relief efforts and those affected.
