Ukraine marks thirty-five years of independence. For the last four and a half of those years, since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion, Ukraine's independence has been defended at a cost the country is still counting. The work of the Ukraine War Archive is to make sure that the cost, the courage and the crimes are all on the record, permanently.
Our urgent appeal goal is to raise £100,000. Every one-off or monthly gift brings us closer to reaching this target.
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United Kingdom and United States
Donations are tax-deductible in the United States and United Kingdom. Donations are processed through Chapel & York, connecting its US and cross-border foundations so donors can access local tax benefits, including US tax deductions and UK Gift Aid.
Donate from the UK or the USAll other countries
Donations from countries outside the US and UK are processed securely through Stripe, with one-off and monthly donation options available. Please note that these donations are not tax-deductible.
Donate internationallyorganisations have entrusted us with their documentation
of preserved materials under custodianship
files safeguarded, documented and cross-referenced
Figures as of July 2026
Ukraine War Archive (UWA) is an independent institution preserving the human record of Russia's war against Ukraine. We operate one of the largest independent archives of multimedia materials documenting lived experience of this war, to ensure this history is not lost, erased or rewritten.
We do not own these stories. We safeguard them, and we build the technological tools that make sense of this vast collection and keep it usable — including as evidence before courts and tribunals.
Every file is preserved with its provenance, context and chain of custody intact, so it remains accessible and usable for researchers, educators, journalists, memorial institutions, families and investigators.
The Archive supports human rights organisations, journalists, prosecutors and investigators seeking accountability for war crimes. Its tools and collections are already used by leading organisations documenting violations and pursuing justice.
But justice is only part of the mission.
Courts may reach verdicts years from now. Families will search for answers for decades. Historians will study this war for generations. The historical record will outlive every trial. Memory will outlive every verdict.
That is why preservation must happen now.
The Archive's work cannot pause and resume. Footage is deleted from platforms every day. Links die. Witnesses move, grow old and are lost — and with them go details no one else can supply. What is not preserved now will not be there to preserve later. That is the urgency of an archive in wartime: the record does not wait.
This is our first public fundraising campaign. Until now, we have relied on the generous support of our donors, but that support has shrunk with time — while Russia's destruction has not stopped for a moment. We are asking for your help in overcoming this difficult period together.
If you would like to discuss individual donation options or a major gift, write to us at donations@ukrainewararchive.org.
Most historical archives are built after the fighting ends. Ukraine War Archive began in March 2022, in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, while the war was still unfolding. Waiting would have meant losing irreplaceable parts of the historical record. Today, the organisation stands at a pivotal moment.
Support for Ukraine War Archive is support for a permanent institution dedicated to preserving one of the defining historical records of the twenty-first century.
You are not simply funding a database. You are helping preserve memory itself.
The question is no longer whether the material exists.
The question is whether it will survive.
UWA maintains a consolidated missing-people resource — built with partner organisations, among them the Center for Civil Liberties and the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, and from open sources — that supports families and official bodies searching for individual people. It now covers more than 127,000 people, is operational today and expanding — and several of the institutions it serves now contribute data of their own.
Ukrainian investigative and prosecutorial bodies draw on preserved materials in live criminal investigations, and the record supports submissions to international courts and accountability mechanisms — including the work of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, whose 2025 report on drone attacks against civilians in the Kherson region drew on collections prepared from the archive.
Human-rights organisations in Ukraine and internationally use preserved materials in accountability and advocacy work — from public reporting to submissions before international bodies.
Investigative journalists and newsrooms source footage, imagery and testimony with provenance and context intact, so reporting on this war rests on records that can be traced to their origin. For instance: "How Russia executes Ukrainian soldiers" in Ukrainska Pravda, and the "Language of Putinism" series on Texty.org — both built on materials the archive prepared.
Academic researchers study the war and its consequences through the collection — from research on forced labour to student capstone projects analysing Russian war crimes — and preserved materials inform teaching and public education.
Documentary films built from witness interviews in the archive screen at festivals and reach audiences worldwide, and memorial projects draw on preserved materials to commemorate people and communities. Materials from the archive have featured in exhibitions from Kherson to Taipei and in collaborations such as LAB: DOCU/SYNTHESIS × Ukraine War Archive.
The core work of the archive: secure, redundant preservation infrastructure; the team in Ukraine who receive, document and safeguard materials from contributors; the recording of witness testimony from survivors and eyewitnesses of war crimes; and the technological tools that keep 148 million files organised and usable for investigators, researchers, journalists and families. UWA does not pay contributors for materials and does not sell access to them — the collection is sustained by grants and donations.
Yes — both donation routes above offer monthly giving alongside one-off gifts. Preservation is continuous work, and regular gifts let us plan it with confidence. You can change or cancel a recurring donation at any time.
Donations made through the UK and US route are processed through Chapel & York and are tax-deductible in the United Kingdom and United States. Donations made through the international route are not tax-deductible. If you have questions about the tax treatment of your gift, or need a donation receipt, write to donations@ukrainewararchive.org and we will help.
UK and US donations are handled by GivingTech through their secure donation platform in partnership with Chapel & York. Donations from all other countries are processed through Stripe on the Ukraine War Archive website. In both cases, your payment details go directly to the payment provider, never to UWA.
Yes — grants from donor-advised funds (DAFs) and direct wire transfers are both available. Write to donations@ukrainewararchive.org and we will send the details for your preferred route.
Yes — the archive exists for exactly this. Visit ukrainewararchive.org to submit materials or arrange to give testimony. Every contributor sets the terms of access to their own materials and can change them. UWA does not pay for materials and does not sell them.
We publish our work openly — the overview and Annual Report 2025 on this page are a start, and the newsletter at ukrainewararchive.org carries updates on the archive and what it makes possible.
If you have more questions, write to us at donations@ukrainewararchive.org.
Thirty-five years ago, Ukrainians chose independence. Since the full-scale invasion they have defended that choice every day. The record of it deserves to survive — complete, independent and in safe hands.
Whatever you give, you become part of the archive's own history: one of the people who kept it independent when it mattered most.
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