We Provide Humanitarian Aid and Critical Life Saving Supplies

Assist Ukraine is currently a project of the co-founders.  Assist Ukraine is in the process of incorporating as a nonprofit corporation and obtaining its 501(c)(3) determination letter. Assist Ukraine has partnered with Families Assisting Families, an Alaska nonprofit corporation (Entity # 10189507; EIN # 88-1155722), and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), a 501(c)(3) organization.

Assist Ukraine responds quickly to constantly changing needs on the ground; the group’s representatives who live near the frontline act in a terrain that they know. As a result, the operational costs are close to zero and the efficency is close to perfect.

Ann Husarska, journalist and political analyst.

  “A big thanks to our friends at Assist Ukraine for funding the upgrade of our ambulances. We appreciate your continued partnership.”

Rostyslav Bilavaka, honored with the State Award of Ukraine for “saving lives and evacuation of wounded soldiers.”

We have delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars of high-end medical supplies and protective gear, food to cities under attack, and have helped to start a children’s home for displaced orphans.

Anne Garrels, long time NPR correspondent and co-founder of Assist Ukraine

News & Features

GRAVESIDE WITH DR. KIM WRIGHT, with whom Assist Ukraine is partnering to provide Humvee ambulances  | October 22, 2023
Pavlohrad (Ukraine) Today, I witnessed yet another reason to keep supporting Ukraine. I’m in the relatively small city of Pavlohrad.  In two cemeteries, flags are standing alongside graves of dead soldiers. There are eight new graves this week in this one.

The man’s wife was crying inconsolably, repeatedly kissing the portrait of her husband. Her son was comforting her. The grandmother finally led the wife away and the son remained there for quite some time, hugging his father’s picture. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever witnessed.

THE NEW YORK TIMES GUEST ESSAY |  Oct. 1, 2023
Have Gear, Will Deliver: Why I Carry Supplies to Ukrainian Troops (excerpts)
By Anna Husarska, a journalist and political analyst

Kharkiv (Ukraine) This past summer, Britain’s defense minister at the time, Ben Wallace, chided Ukraine for not showing enough gratitude for the West’s weapons supplies. “We’re not Amazon,” he said.

No, but there is a kind of Amazon for the Ukrainian military, in analog form: a network of civilian volunteer groups that deliver an array of goods to soldiers in the field, on request.

I know because I’m one of those volunteers. We deliver tourniquets, chest seals for lung wounds, observation drones, night vision monoculars, power banks, underwear and feet warmers, all within a few days. A secondhand four-wheel-drive vehicle or a thermal drone takes a little longer, up to two weeks.

Volunteerism has played a powerful role in Ukraine’s recent history. An opinion poll conducted that summer, when the economy was already suffering from Russian attacks, found 86 percent of Ukrainians had donated to charities and 33 percent were actively volunteering.

Supplying the army quickly, often with imported items, could not easily be done otherwise: The military’s lingering post-Soviet bureaucracy makes reacting to its own soldiers’ needs difficult. Soldiers get kitted out with gear when they sign up, but lost or damaged items, from socks to helmets, are not automatically replaced. The Defense Ministry is busy dealing with big-ticket items, distributing tanks and heavy weapons coming in from all over the world.

That’s how we, the volunteers, ended up fund-raising and supplying so many essential bits and pieces through ad hoc arrangements with parts of the Ukrainian military. In the grand scheme of things, our individual efforts are minuscule, but they are lifesaving all the same [. . .]

My most recent delivery was to the 3017th Military Unit of the Ukrainian National Guard [. . .] I pick up the vehicle in Berlin. On the Polish side of the Rava Ruska border crossing into Ukraine, I am waved through. On the Ukrainian side, the customs officers know me from previous deliveries, so things go smoothly there, too. An hour later in Lviv I meet up with Olga Shpak, a biologist specializing in whales who abandoned her research, friends and apartment in Moscow two days before the invasion to return to her native Kharkiv. She now is a representative there for another volunteer group, Assist Ukraine, co-founded by the retired NPR journalist Anne Garrels.

Small and flexible groups like these are crucial in this war because the big international humanitarian organizations shy away from anything remotely military. Even a lifesaving tourniquet smells martial to them. But, as Ms. Garrels said soon after the invasion, Ukrainians “don’t need teddy bears, they need flak jackets.”

Ms. Shpak is a one-stop supplier for the military units she knows. Their needs range from dry showers and insect repellent to night-vision devices. She finds the product on the market — in Ukraine or abroad, via the producer or online — and buys it with funds from Assist Ukraine or similar groups, and then organizes the delivery. “Can you urgently find a sturdy pickup for the 3017th?” she had texted me. Soon, it was in the unit’s shopping cart [. . .]

I for one have never seen a war effort — and I have reported on several dozen conflicts — relying so much on volunteerism.

UKRAINIAN RESILIENCE | Sept. 20, 2023
“From the first days of the invasion, Anne Garrels, the other co-founders of Assist Ukraine, and I have been amazed at the courage and resiliency of Ukrainian people. We have been in awe of how they fight, not just for their country, but for the democratic values of free societies everywhere. They have shown us how to resist tyranny and the threat of nuclear attack.

Assist Ukraine has received a great deal of appreciation from Ukrainians for the assistance we are providing.  As thoughtfully expressed in this podcast by Timothy Snyder, there are also many things for which we can thank Ukrainians.  – Art Davidson, Assist Ukraine Co-Founder.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE from Olga Shpak, Reporting from the Front Lines | April 2023
Click here for an eerie behind the scenes look at the devastation wrought upon Ukraine during recent attacks by Russian troops, narrated by Olga Shpak.

OUTPOURING OF SUPPORT: Note from Art Davidson | January 4, 2023
While we still have a long way to go to meet our $800,000 goal to satisfy the critical needs in Ukraine, I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to each of you who have donated. I am profoundly heartened by the outpouring of support.  Just yesterday we received a generous gift of $2,000, it was accompanied by a touching note that read: “this $2,000 was going to go to a new car but giving here is more important.”  Thank you for being a part of our team!  Know that we remain fiercely resolute in our commitment to do everything in our power to serve the dire needs of our friends in Ukraine.

URGENT NEEDS UPDATE | Dec. 15, 2022
As you know, winter has come to Ukraine. Russia continues its merciless bombing of Ukraine’s power system. On December 7, Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned of a “apocalypse” for the Ukrainian this winter. He added that Kyiv, along with most of our country might lose power, water, and heat. One way or another, everyone in Ukraine is now at risk. They need our help more than ever! 

To meet the growing needs of the Ukrainian people we urgently need to raise $800,000 in the next 30 days. To help reach this goal, a generous donor has offered a $400,000 matching gift challenge and will match your donation, dollar for dollar. Money raised from this Lifesaving Matching Gift Challenge will be used for two fundamental purposes:

• to help Ukrainians survive the brutal winter that is upon them
• to help support a growing number of orphans.

Support received through this matching gift challenge will allow us to provide evacuation vehicles, generators, wood stoves, power stations, sleeping bags, winter parkas, pants, winter suits, hats, gloves and thermal underwear to those in need.

Additionally, Assist Ukraine will support the growing number of orphans by:

• providing clothes, bedding, and generators for the orphanage this winter and continued support for the future and
• providing opportunities for children aging-out of the orphanages to continue their education.
• expanding to a new orphanage. Assist Ukraine has been invited to partner with a French group in building a new facility to care for up to 500 children. Please invest in the future of these deserving children today.

November 4, 2022
Ukrainians are facing a brutal winter. The orphanage Assist-Ukraine helped start in western Ukraine is now home to more than 100 children. They urgently need winter clothing, more blankets, and an electrical generating system.  Immediate Financial Need: $30,000.

We are sourcing high-end winter survival coats, pants, boots and gloves that our partners in Ukraine get to people on the front and in areas recently recaptured. November financial need: $80,000.

Our help is needed more than ever. We are still operating with zero overhead. Please help as much as you can.  We encourage you to consult your tax accountant regarding tax deductible events.

In October, Assist-Ukraine delivered much needed radios, protective vests, helmets, headlamps, and surveillance drones, as well as winter survival gear and wood burning stoves for people in the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine. We also purchased a 4×4 off road winter rescue vehicle for our partner who has rescued many people over the past 8 months.

Sadly, we were asked to provide 300 body bags. We also helped save numerous lives.  Your help is making a difference!  Please, help us meet our immediate critical financial needs by donating today.