Yashchuk O. International Relations of the Red Cross of Ukraine (1922 - 2014)

The thesis is devoted to comprehensive research of international relations issues of the Red Cross of Ukraine during 1922 - 2014. The participation of the first Ukrainian branches of the Red Cross in lending aid to foreign victims of armed conflicts in the last third of the nineteenth - early twentieth centuries has been analyzed in the context of Ukraine's integration into the global Red Cross movement. The level of cross-border activity of the Ukrainian Committee of the Red Cross in the improvement of captive soldiers' health condition during the First World War has been determined. The directions of international work founded in 1918 and other Red Cross organizations acting in Ukraine in the area of repatriation of prisoners of war during the national liberation struggle have been outlined. The involvement of the Ukrainian Red Cross by Bolsheviks' to propaganda humanitarian actions abroad and using by them of international status of the society as a tool to exact the resources from people of USSR during the interwar period has been studied. The international importance of the participation of the Red Cross in the segment of the Second World War events that unfolded in Ukraine has been determined. The role of the Red Cross Society of the USSR in the development of international law, patronage over networks of healthcare and prevention-care institutions abroad and providing material support to residents of countries affected by natural disasters and armed conflicts has been characterized. It has been proved, that international relations of the Ukrainian society were mainly limited to the borders of the USSR and participation in inter-republican "socialist competition". Our domestic society also was engaged in various actions of help to "brotherly peoples" of other soviet republics initiated by Moscow. For a long time the contacts of the Red Cross of Ukraine with foreigners were within the limits of demonstration exchange of delegations or were determined by work with political exiles. The forms of cross-border cooperation of the Red Cross of the independent Ukraine with foreign colleagues in providing generous assistance to patients and at-risk groups of Ukrainian society and the victims of the armed conflict in Donbas have been characterized. It has been traced that the representatives of the Red Cross of Ukraine were members of international commissions repeatedly and participated in international conferences which dealt with important issues of global coordination of the Red Cross movement and took decisions on joint actions to combat the effects of natural disasters and epidemics.