Since Russia invaded Ukraine, starting the proxy conflict between Moscow and Washington/European allies, governments and multilateral bodies have mobilized to respond to one of the biggest humanitarian emergencies on European soil since World War II.
By the end of September, according to the UN, more than 13 million Ukrainians had crossed the border fleeing the war — 7.5 million having sought shelter in European countries.
The official narrative of solidarity and benevolent engagement, however, barely disguises traditional political and economic interests in this type of transnational response to clashes that affect multitudes of civilians. The reminder is from Luiza Mateo, professor of international relations at PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University).
It is clear that initiatives such as the device approved by the European Union to allow Ukrainian refugees to stay in the 27 countries of the bloc for up to three years, with access to education, work and social security (and without the need for a visa) are important. Or the British Homes for Ukraine, a similar program, but which places the issuance of a visa as a prerequisite for the entry of citizens displaced by the war.
Or the approximately US$ 8 billion (R$ 41 billion) already donated by Usaid, the North American agency for international development, for the maintenance of essential services (notably, hospitals, schools, access to electricity, groceries and housing ) —US$ 3 billion (R$ 15 billion) in the month of August alone.
But those transfers pale next to the contributions made by Washington and Brussels to boost the Ukrainian military response to Russian onslaughts. The US alone has committed to sending, since February this year, more than US$ 13.5 billion (R$ 73 billion) in weapons and ammunition. In the last 12 months, there were no less than 19 packages of military aid.
“This aid [com armas e munições] it feeds the conflict”, says Mateo. “Humanitarian aid ends up as a mere response to public opinion, to try to counterbalance the involvement of these countries in the war machine.”
Another knot in humanitarian aid, according to the professor, is the distance between the amounts promised by the powers that finance the main United Nations agencies and what is actually disbursed.
“Many countries end up preferring the bilateral route [de governo para governo, sem a intermediação de órgãos multilaterais]. This allows, for example, tighter control over the targeting of resources and the inclusion of hand-picked private partners, consolidating the aid industry machine”, notes Mateo
According to the researcher, the tap of contributions must remain open while the conflict is active, since the theater of war, it is worth remembering, takes place in the backyard of the European Union, not in some remote latitude. But the context of the global economic crisis should be an element of pressure on new billionaire remittances.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s government announced in July that the country’s reconstruction will cost €750 billion. Even if this budget is overestimated, it will indeed take a few more rounds of packages (in the form of grants, low-interest loans and a freeze on foreign debt, among others) to lift the country on the shores of the Black Sea out of the quagmire.
Brazil offers shy help
Brazilian aid to Ukraine had its main chapter at the beginning of the conflict, in March of this year. An FAB plane took more than 11 tons of food, medicine and water purifiers to Poland, from where batches were dispatched to the border region with the neighboring country.
The cargo was donated by an instant food company. But the aircraft’s main mission, in fact, was to bring back Brazilians who had been displaced by the war.
Since then, the response of the world’s fourth-largest colony of Ukrainians (after Russia, the US and Canada) to the humanitarian emergency has been limited in scope. It is estimated that there are around 500,000 descendants of Ukrainians in Brazil, most of them in Paraná.
The Ukrainian-Brazilian Central Representation, for example, raised about R$ 600,000 from folkloric shows and coffee growers who export to the European country, transferred to the Embassy of Ukraine in BrasÃlia.
According to the organisation’s president, lawyer Vitório Sorotiuk, an agreement was also concluded with a foundation of the Paraná government for the arrival of 16 teachers from the troubled country (from areas such as biological sciences, history and pedagogy).
An agreement between the largest pediatric hospital in Kiev and the Curitiba-based Pequeno PrÃncipe, a Latin American reference, is also part of the representation’s task force. The idea is to promote an exchange of doctors and training for pediatric nurses.
There are no consolidated figures on the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in Brazil.
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