Free phone calls and postal services to support Ukraine

Channel Islanders with friends and family in Ukraine can contact them for free, utilities bosses have said.

Phone and postal companies said they were making the changes following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Fixed line and mobile calls, plus SMS messages from the islands to numbers in Ukraine will be free of charge.

Jersey Post and Guernsey Post said they were waiving charges for mail sent to Ukraine, with Guernsey Post adding aid packages could also be sent for free.

Sure, JT and Airtel-Vodafone all said they were making contacting Ukraine free of charge.

Pip Carpenter, head of consumer market at JT, said: "We want to do what we can to help.

"We hope by making phone calls free it will support those who are trying to contact and stay in touch with friends and loved ones."

David McGrath, from Jersey Post, said: "Keeping in touch with people at moments like this are vital, and we will do all we can to help those caught up in these tragic events."

In Jersey, mail should be hand-delivered to both Broad Street Post Office and Rue des Pres Post Office for processing, Jersey Post bosses said.

In Guernsey, people can send their post from the Envoy House counter, "but delays are almost certain given the current circumstances", the postal service said.

Guernsey Post also said free postage for humanitarian aid packages sent to Ukraine was being offered in conjunction with Poland-based organisation Help Ukraine.

Such parcels should be brought to Guernsey Post's main retail counter at Postal Headquarters, it said.

They would be dispatched to a warehouse in Poland "where arrangements have been made for onward transportation to Ukraine", it added.

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