 The Ukrainian Red Cross Society was established on April 18, 1918 in Kiev as an independent humanitarian society of the Ukrainian People's Republic.Its immediate tasks were to help refugees and prisoners of war, care of handicapped people, orphaned children, fighting famine and epidemics, support and organize sick quarters, hospitals and public canteens.From the 1920s, when Ukrainian territory was integrated part of the Soviet Union, and until 1991, the Ukrainian Red Cross functioned as a part of the Soviet Red Cross.