On 26th February, I tweeted “who would help me set up a Liberal Democrats Friends of Ukraine?” thinking I might get one or two people to help me set up a small Associated Organisation. What I got was multiple volunteers, a larger than expected interest and, very quickly, an organisation with nearly 100 members.

Myself, Jake Stevenson, Leo Dempster and Euan Davidson became the founding members, and first executive, of Liberal Democrats Friends of Ukraine (or LDFU). We launched a basic website, Twitter account and a sign-up sheet on Google Forms, and within 14 hours we had 70 members and over 100 followers. What we were most surprised at is the amount of members that said they would like to volunteer: as it stands, about 70% of members said they want to volunteer for LDFU.

I set up LDFU because I thought we all needed to do more for Ukraine and its people during this time of violence and fleeing. Ukraine’s victory depends on the international community’s help, which the UK is a leading figure in. As Liberal Democrats, we shouldn’t be sitting around while Russia commits human rights abuses and war crimes in Ukraine. As Liberal Democrats, we should be standing up to the government, asking them for harsher punishments on Russia and more support for Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees.

LDFU will fight misinformation, provide reliable information, campaign for more support for Ukrainian refugees, campaign for the best interests of Ukraine, tell people how they can directly help Ukraine and make sure our donations go towards support for Ukraine. This is the way many can help in Ukraine from thousands of miles away, and we want to ensure that as many people do that as possible.

We will be holding a conference with our members in the coming weeks, where we will officially set out our intentions and policy positions. The date for this will be confirmed on our Twitter account (@LibDemsUkraine).

In the meantime, people can join LDFU in standing with Ukraine on our website. It is completely free to join and is open to Liberal Democrats across the globe.

* Cameron Greer is the Founder and Chair of Liberal Democrats Friends of Ukraine and is a Liberal Democrat campaigner in the South of Scotland.