We are American citizens. Some of us are originally from Ukraine. Others were born and raised in America. Some of us are military veterans. Others are lifelong civilians. Some of us vote Republican, and some of us vote Democrat. Between us, we speak English, Russian, Ukrainian, French, and Spanish. We share a commitment to defending Ukraine’s people, independence, and democracy from the russist invaders.

Our involvement with the defense of Ukraine began with training psychologists to work with people in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Soon after the February 2022 full-scale invasion, we began evacuating civilians from Severodonetsk and Lyschansk, then from Bakhmut. We supply front-line units with medical equipment, and train psychologists, nursing students, and military and civilian medics. We work with a network of Ukrainian and foreign humanitarian groups to assess needs and get supplies to where they are needed most urgently.

Kevin Bretonnel Cohen is our president and “man on the ground.” The emeritus director of the Biomedical Text Mining Group of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, he is a medic (військовий парамедик) in Ukraine.

Olena Avramenko is our secretary and logistics chief. Born and educated in Kharkiv, Ukraine, she is a psychologist at Jewish Family Service in Denver, Colorado, where she treats depression; anxiety; panic disorder; issues related to trauma, loss and grief; life transitions; and relationship problems.

Boris Palant is our chief fundraiser. A Manhattan immigration attorney, he is an author and a popular guest on russian-language podcasts and streaming news shows, and has appeared on the BBC and Voice of America.