The first thousand devices collected in the EU as humanitarian aid within the framework of the Laptops for Ukraine initiative have arrived in Ukraine.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission reported that the first thousand devices collected thanks to the initiative have already been brought to Ukraine.

"People from all across the EU generously helped make this happen, reaffirming once again our strong solidarity with Ukraine. This will help hard-hit areas in Ukraine stay connected," the President of the European Commission said. 

Our #LaptopsforUkraine initiative delivered its first batch of over 1000 devices to Ukraine.

People from all across the EU generously helped make this happen, reaffirming once again our strong solidarity with Ukraine.

This will help hard-hit areas in Ukraine stay connected. pic.twitter.com/v80BaVGXpk

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 6, 2023

The initiative is a joint project of the European organisation Digital Europe, the European Commission and the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation. The priority aid recipients are teachers and students, healthcare and cultural institutions.

Willing Europeans can donate used laptops, tablets, smartphones, as well as scanners, cameras and external drives with a large amount of memory to Ukrainians for such assistance – so that museums can digitise their collections and prevent irreversible loss in the event of destruction.

The largest number of centres for collecting such charitable aid are in Belgium and Germany, where there are four of them, and there are also centres in the Czechia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, France, Spain, Hungary, and Slovenia.