AMAZON.COM, INC. March 28
AWS contributes technology resources to support humanitarian relief
Over the past month, nonprofit, government, and commercial customers have requested assistance in accelerating important humanitarian efforts that are helping millions of refugees and people within Ukraine and surrounding countries. Read more.
March 24
Amazon launches employment support program for refugees
Amazon has launched Welcome Door, a new program to provide refugees employed by the company with additional resources and support-including free legal assistance on their path to citizenship. Ukrainian refugees hired by Amazon will have access to this new initiative, which will be available in the U.S next month and expand globally by the end of this year. Read more.
March 22
Amazon launches humanitarian aid hub in Slovakia
Built in just 10 days,Amazon's new humanitarian hub will help relief organizations provide faster support to Ukrainian refugees.Read more.
Amazon signs The Tent Partnership for Refugees
More than 3 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Ukraine. We are proud to support immediate and longer-term needs of Ukrainians through the Tent Partnership. Learn more.
March 8
Updates to Amazon's retail, entertainment, and AWS businesses
Amazon has suspended shipment of retail products to customers based in Russia and Belarus and will no longer provide customers with access to Prime Video in Russia. Read more.
March 4
Amazon's cybersecurity assistance for Ukraine
Note: This post was updated on March 8 to include the fact that AWS is no longer accepting new sign-ups based in Russia or Belarus.
AWS has been working closely with Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure. Teams of Account Managers, Security Specialists, Solutions Architects, and other technical professionals are working around the clock to help customers and partners at this critical time. Read more.
February 28
Amazon is working with NGOs and employees to offer immediate support to the people of Ukraine
Amazon is donating $5 million to organizations that are providing critical support on the ground in the Ukraine and matching up to $5 million in additional donations from employees. Read more.
March 28
AWS contributes technology resources to support humanitarian relief
Over the past month, nonprofit, government, and commercial customers have requested assistance in accelerating important humanitarian efforts that are helping millions of refugees and people within Ukraine and surrounding countries. Amazon Web Services (AWS) technologies and experts have been supporting a range of activities, including powering applications that are facilitating the intake of Ukrainian refugees at border crossings, providing technology to help establish safe evacuation routes, setting up emergency internet connectivity, and enabling secure communications.
We are working closely with international aid organizations like Help.NGO, which specializes in emergency response, by providing technology resources that are supporting refugee needs. We are also working with local Ukrainian organizations, such as Optima School, the country's largest distance learning school, to scale up and support the thousands of displaced students who now need access to online education.
Because of the complexity of the work on the ground and the evolving security landscape, technology assistance can have an outsized impact on the success of relief efforts. This is why AWS is committing $15 million in cloud computing credits, and technical expertise, to continue supporting local and global organizations addressing this humanitarian crisis. Existing customers that would like to access these resources to further their efforts should reach out to their account managers, while new customers can get started here.
We are thankful to be working with and supporting our customers who are tirelessly bringing aid to refugees at this critical time, and we will continue to stand with and support Ukraine.
March 22
Amazon launches new humanitarian aid hub in Slovakia to help relief organizations provide faster support to Ukrainian refugees.
In just 10 days, Amazon teams from around the world came together to build a new humanitarian aid hub in Eastern Europe-converting 5,000 square metersof warehouse space in Slovakia, previously used for customer fulfillment, into a facility that helps get much-needed supplies to Ukrainian refugees. This is the largest such hub Amazon has ever built, and it works in concert with the company's broader infrastructure, innovative technologies, and global logistics network to provide critical supplies to front-line organizations as quickly and efficiently as possible.
With the hub up and running, a network of Amazon fulfillment centers across Europe is now preparing and delivering more than four million critical supplies donated by both Amazon and its customers-including shelter materials, hygiene items, blankets, and clothing. Working backwards from refugee needs, Amazon teams assess what supplies they must donate directly, procure any missing items, and then consolidate, pack, and ship the supplies needed by charities to do their lifesaving work. Customers in Europe can donate to support these efforts through dedicated Wish Lists on Amazon's European stores.
As these critical supplies come in to Amazon's European network, the Amazon Transportation Services team is shipping them to the new hub in Slovakia, where space is exclusively carved out for the relief efforts. Once the products arrive at the hub in Slovakia, the donated supplies are distributed to displaced refugees in partnership with charities including Save The Children and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The strategic location of the Slovakia humanitarian aid hub will significantly expedite the movement of relief supplies throughout Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, and Czech Republic to quickly help Ukrainian children and families in need.
Launching this hub in less than 10 days was a huge team effort, and it's gratifying to see much-needed supplies already flowing through and making their way to people in need. We're thankful to our customers for their generosity and to our teams and our partners for their work and dedication to supporting refugees at this critical time, and we know this will be a long-term effort. If you'd like to learn more or offer support, you can do so by visiting Amazon's donation site.
This new hub is just one of the ways we're working to support humanitarian efforts in the region, and you can learn moreabout our previous financial support and other actions.
March 8
Updates to Amazon's retail, entertainment, and AWS businesses in Russia and Belarus
Given the ongoing situation in Russia and Ukraine, we've taken additional actions in the region. We've suspended shipment of retail products to customers based in Russia and Belarus, and we will no longer be accepting new Russia and Belarus-based AWS customers and Amazon third-party sellers. We are also suspending access to Prime Video for customers based in Russia, and we will no longer be taking orders for New World, which is the only video game we sell directly in Russia.
As a reminder, unlike some other U.S. technology providers, Amazon and AWS have no data centers, infrastructure, or offices in Russia, and we have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government.
We're continuing to partner with several NGOs and organizations to support the immense humanitarian needs in the region. Amazon donated $5 million to support those impacted. We continue to match our employees' donations, and we're happy to report that over 10,000 employees have donated to the effort. Tens of thousands of customers around the world have also made donations via our homepages, and we're making sure those funds get to Save the Children and the Red Cross on the ground.
March 4
Amazon's cybersecurity assistance for Ukraine
Alongside supplying humanitarian relief and support to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), to help those affected by the violence, AWS has been working closely with Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure. Teams of Account Managers, Security Specialists, Solutions Architects, and other technical professionals are working around the clock to help customers and partners at this critical time. We are helping these customers employ security best practices, through following our Well-Architected Framework, to ensure that workloads are protected. In other cases, we are building and supplying technical services and tools to customers in Ukraine to help them securely migrate their on-premises infrastructure onto AWS in order to protect it from any potential physical or virtual attack.
For several weeks, we have been partnering closely with Ukrainian IT organizations to fend off attacks and working with organizations in Ukraine, and around the world, to share real-time, relevant intelligence. As a result, our teams have seen new malware signatures and activity from a number of state actors we monitor. As this activity has ramped up, our teams and technologies detected the threats, learned the patterns, and placed remediation tools directly into the hands of customers. As always, our teams are constantly learning from the intelligence we collect to continue evolving protections for our infrastructure. We employ a 'follow the sun' model where our teams track new threat intelligence 24/7 and are able to quickly respond to issues. Our security teams are sharing this intelligence with governments and IT organizations that we partner closely with from Europe, North America, and around the world to equip critical infrastructure owners and operators with additional information to protect their facilities.
While we are seeing an increase in activity of malicious state actors, we are also seeing a higher operational tempo by other malicious actors. We have seen several situations where malware has been specifically targeted at charities, NGOs, and other aid organizations in order to spread confusion and cause disruption. In these particularly egregious cases, malware has been targeted at disrupting medical supplies, food, and clothing relief. We'll continue to work hard to protect these customers and will continue to work closely with them as they carry out their much-needed work to help those impacted by this terrible conflict.
Our public sector teams partner closely with governments to understand their security needs, responding quickly with support and guidance. In the lead up to this conflict, we consulted with the Ukrainian government, nations across the European Union, the European Commission, the U.S. government, NATO, and other organizations. AWS remains committed to providing security expertise and support, as mentioned in Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy's message on Twitter to the people of Ukraine.
Unlike other U.S. technology providers, AWS has no data centers, infrastructure, or offices in Russia, and we have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government. We have also stopped allowing new sign-ups for AWS in Russia and Belarus. Our biggest customers using AWS in Russia are companies who are headquartered outside of the country and have some development teams there. AWS has clear terms of service where if a customer is using AWS services to threaten, incite, promote, or actively encourage violence, terrorism, or other serious harm, they will not be permitted to use our services. Any customer we know of who is participating in this type of behavior will have their access to AWS suspended.
As this conflict continues, AWS and Amazon are actively assisting and will carry on doing so into the future for both the people of Ukraine and around the world. We will continue working to support the relief efforts and to bring our security expertise and services to help to everyone that needs them.
We will also continue to share updates and progress on our efforts.
February 28
Amazon is working with NGOs and employees to offer immediate support to the people of Ukraine
Like many of you around the world, we're watching what's happening in Ukraine with horror, concern, and heavy hearts. While we have no direct operations in Ukraine, we have employees and partners who are from or have a deep connection to the country.
Over the past several days, we've worked across Amazon to understand how we can best help those who are affected by the violence. It's difficult for any company without a local presence to provide direct support in a war zone, so we're donating $5 million to organizations that are providing critical support on the ground, including UNICEF, UNHCR, World Food Program, Red Cross, Polska Akcja Humanitarna, and Save the Children.
We've also heard from employees that they want to help, so we're matching up to $5 million in additional donations from our team to those organizations. For customers who want to help, we're adding donation buttons or direct links to charitable organizations on the homepages of our websites, and will waive our fees for payment processing on donations made through Amazon.
In addition to providing financial support for relief efforts on the ground in Ukraine, we're also working to support our teams and Ukrainian immigrants in other ways. For example, we gave employees in Poland additional time off to take care of themselves and their families, and we're working with Ukrainian nationals to expedite immigration work visas if they've relocated.
The recovery from the war will take many years, and we'll continue working with NGOs, our employees, and our partners to support the relief efforts and those affected.
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Amazon.com Inc. published this content on 28 March 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 28 March 2022 13:10:03 UTC.
