The humanitarian crisis is there.
According to the latest UN counts, more than 1.2 million people have fled Ukraine in recent days and donations from governments and organizations are pouring in.
In France, companies are also mobilizing to provide financial or material aid to the country victim of the Russian offensive since February 24.
Sometimes present in Russia or trading with this country, several of them do not necessarily condemn the invasion but must respond to internal pressure, from public opinion and the public authorities.
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Le Figaro details in a non-exhaustive manner the donations of French groups.
Especially since not all of them necessarily communicate.
On February 28, the French Red Cross launched an appeal for donations to meet the humanitarian needs in Ukraine and neighboring countries.
The French food multinational Danone responded, depositing 500,000 euros in the kitty.
“
We will also double each euro donated by Danone employees to the Red Cross, up to an additional 500,000 euros,
” the group announced.
In addition to its financial donations, Danone indicates that it will send foodstuffs to the Ukrainians.
"
We are developing a plan to get some of our products to the people who need them in Ukraine as quickly as possible
," the company said.
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The French bank BNP Paribas, the leading bank in Europe, has made a commitment to the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) and its partners Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the Red Cross to provide direct financial aid.
For now, it amounts to 10 million euros, according to the French bank.
The latter has also opened an "
Emergency & Development Fund
", which allows BNP customers to make donations for the benefit of MSF and the Red Cross kitty.
The company announces that it will match these donations.
These also give rise to a reduction in income tax.
BNP Paribas, which operates in Ukraine through Ukrsibbank and which has nearly 5,000 employees, specifies that "
these amounts may be increased according to the needs expressed by the partner organisations, as well as by BNP Paribas matching the donations made within the framework of its Emergency & Development Fund
”.
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The world leader in luxury LVMH has also announced a donation of five million euros to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The group also announced on March 2 that it would organize a fundraiser with its employees, the amount of which will also be donated to the Red Cross.
Louis Vuitton has announced that it has donated one million euros to help Ukrainian children.
"
One million euros will be donated immediately to Unicef to help children and families affected by the conflict in Ukraine
," the house said in a statement, joining other initiatives in this direction, including the part of the houses Balmain, Balenciaga and the luxury holding company Kering.
The automobile group Stellantis pledged on March 2 to provide humanitarian aid of one million euros in support of Ukrainian refugees and civilians displaced by the crisis.
“
Stellantis will rely on a local humanitarian organization to help Ukrainians make the best use of this exceptional fund,
” explained the multinational group.
The operators Free and Orange, which have activities and employees in several countries bordering Ukraine, are organizing distributions of prepaid SIM cards to Ukrainian refugees.
Orange employees in Poland are thus mobilized on the border with Ukraine, on the routes through which refugees pass, to manage distribution.
“
The neighboring countries were very concerned.
We organized the delivery of 40,000 SIM cards to Poland.
We mobilize our salespeople on the spot, who know how to explain how the products work, but also technicians to manage the problems of network saturation
”, explains Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière, deputy general manager of Orange in charge of Europe.
commercial gestures
More broadly, French operators Orange, Free, Bouygues Telecom and SFR have all made communications to Ukraine free.
Orange also indicates that it has introduced free communications for its customers traveling to Ukraine.
“
The most affected by this change are foreigners who go to Ukraine, who are often members of NGOs there
,” says Mari-Noëlle Jégo-Laveissière.
The company is currently in discussion with Ukrainian operators to make
roaming
free for Ukrainians, which would amount to not charging people from Ukraine using the Orange network in Europe.
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In addition, several transport companies in Europe allow Ukrainians to travel on simple presentation of their passport.
The SNCF has made its main line trains, TER and international lines departing from France, including the Eurostar, free.
FlixBus has added bus connections to and from the town of Przemysl in Poland, near the Ukrainian border.
The group has made free transport for refugees departing from Polish towns Przemysl and Rzeszow, in southeastern Poland, on February 27 and from Bucharest in Romania since March 1.
