On April 18 in Kyiv of First Congress of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society was held. This is the date when the Ukrainian Red Cross was established as an independent national society.

The Society organizes thousands of diners for the poor and provides people with millions of food parcels.

The Ukrainian Red Cross Society owns 119 medical, 206 preventive and child care centres, a quarter of all TB dispensaries, 36 healthcare institutions, 800 baths, 300 midwifery stations, 400 pharmacies and sanitation and hygiene shops.

During the World War II, the Society prepares and sends to the front more than 100,000 nurses, health instructors and health brigades. At this time, the Red Cross also initiates free donation. The heroic deed of 17 Ukrainian nurses, who participated in the armed conflict, was awarded with Florence Nightingale Medal – the highest award of the International Committee of the Red Cross. In Ukraine, 23 nurses were awarded with this prestigious global award for exceptional charity in post-war and peace time.

For the Red Cross Society of the Ukrainian SSR, it continued to be important to continue to strengthen ties and cooperation with health authorities and institutions and to involve the broad masses in participation in measures to eliminate the sanitary consequences of the war. The company begins to restore the network of medical institutions, as well as baths, health facilities, canteens. The Ukrainian Red Cross Society is launching its own health service, which includes 180,000 activists. The task of the service was to control the hygienic condition of water bodies, soils and air. Sanactiv is being widely prepared – people who have acquired knowledge in a certain field of medicine in health clubs and provided hospitals, clinics with assistance in caring for the sick at home, children’s health, prevention of infectious diseases.

Creation of the visiting nurses service for medical and social support to vulnerable groups of the population.

More than 10,000 activists, members of the sanitation posts and brigades of the Red Cross took part in evacuation and resettlement of victims of the Chernobyl catastrophe, provided them with medical and social, psychological and material support. The Society distributed 7,000 tonnes of food, 105 tonnes of milk powder, multivitamins, levotyroksin.

On the initiative of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, comprehensive Chornobyl programme was launched. Mobile Diagnostic Red Cross teams carried out an inspection of the affected population, and raised awareness among the population in the affected regions. To support the humanitarian programmes for the Chornobyl catastrophe victims, the Red Cross movement raised more than 35 mln. US dollars.

The society was officially recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and became a fully-fledged member of the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies.

The Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine adopted the law “On the Red Cross and Red Crescent Emblems in Ukraine”. This law defines the order and conditions of use and protection of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent emblems in Ukraine.

Adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On the Ukrainian Red Cross Society”, which regulates the issues related to the activities of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, as well as the legal status and legal framework of its activity.

The Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine ratified the 3^rd Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions signed in 1949 ‘On the Red Crystal’.

The Society works in a special mode: Emergency Response Teams are created to provide aid to those who were affected during the civil unrest, especially in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsya and Vinnytsya region. The Society focuses on support to the affected and displaced people from the conflict zone and the Crimea, continuing to provide care to the vulnerable population. The Society is developing psychosocial support as a direction of its activity.

The Society is undergoing reforms and organisational development to strengthen the main areas of activity: the development of the volunteer movement, first aid training, emergency response, dissemination of knowledge aimed at protecting the population, helping the most vulnerable and more.

Pandemic COVID-19. The society mobilises all possible resources to counteract its spread among the population. The Society provides information on COVID-19 and vaccination; transfers equipment and personal protective equipment to medical institutions, and strongly supports vulnerable groups during the pandemic.