Needless to say, that we're living in unprecedented times of the full-scale war – the most challenging times in the modern history of our country. Still, I can tell you and it's quite obvious now that these challenges will not break us yet make us stronger. We're in the frontline of the battle between humanitarian values and democracy and the darkness and autocracy. And I'm pretty sure we'll win.
Let me start from what we're currently doing at EY Ukraine - we never ever jeopardize our values and our commitments. We have several groups of commitments or even duties of care. The first – our people, second – our clients and the third – our wider society. In terms of our people, their physical safety is our paramount priority. Regarding the connection, from the very beginning of the war in February we have launched weekly microphone with CMP – people ask questions they are bothered about and CMP answers on weekly broadcasts. Also, we launched internal portal, and then we launched EY Times – an internal media for EY people to better know one another while working remotely. Regarding our colleague's safety, we organized working hubs in the western part of Ukraine. We need to make sure that our people are located in safe locations and may continue to work.
The second priority is our clients – we always support them; our colleagues continue to work from hubs, shelters, they work when there are electricity and other utility cuts. We managed to deliver top-quality services regardless of all the circumstances. And our clients value that.
And the third is the wider society – we continue paying taxes, we're helping the government, we're helping the volunteers, we're helping with pro bono projects to sustain and rebuild Ukraine. It's very important now as I sincerely believe that as the result of this war we'll have the new Ukraine – absolutely different and much better than it used to be. And we're trying to help its birth. We, as a global organization, are constantly helping the country in this rebuild. It's very important that we help to develop a new economy, totally modern, based on democratic values.
At the end I would like to stress again I'm pretty sure that Ukraine will win. My sincerest appreciation to the resilience of all Ukrainians, we are a very strong and resilient people, I'm sure this people will win.
Bogdan Yarmolenko,
EY Ukraine Managing Partner
