Articles

Stopping the funding of all work in Russia

As of 16 September 2023 our charity will no longer be making any transactions with Russia. In reality this means the end of all our already small activities there till sanctions on Russia are lifted.

The reason for this is that our bank, HSBC, has demanded this as a condition for their continued services.  Banks in Europe, cannot be bothered to spend on compliance for small charities like us, that deal with countries that have high compliance requirements and problematic governments. It is just not profitable. Animals and children related charities will suffer, but such is life.

We will continue our work in Ukraine as long as the banking bureaucratic machine will allow us, despite constant demands from the bank to justify our work, answer multiple repeated questions that other charities, who do not work in Ukraine don’t have to waste their time on. In reality hoping for us to us to shut down all together, so they don’t have to deal with our special case or helping in a war zone.

The big banks only want only customers who operate in non problematic countries or customers rich enough so it’s worth their while. This is the reality of HSBC and probably any big UK/ EU bank. This is what happens when people put blank requirements on banks without consideration for charities who are actually needed in countries who are in trouble.

Nevertheless we will keep helping animals where it’s most needed right now and where we can operate – Ukraine . We will rekindle our work to help animals in Russia when the war stops and  Russia has a healthy government and  political environment.