Speaker 1: I'm Hillary Clinton, and this is you and me both.
Speaker 1: During my time as Secretary of State, I encountered firsthand
Speaker 1: the challenges of managing multiple crises across the globe. You know,
Speaker 1: every conflict requires your attention, every opportunity requires your attention,
Speaker 1: and it all happens at the same time. Success in
Speaker 1: the job means being able to balance it all while
Speaker 1: never losing sight of the bigger picture. And while the
Speaker 1: world is rightly focused now on the horrific violence that
Speaker 1: erupted in the Middle East because of Hamas's inhumane attack
Speaker 1: on Israeli's men, women, children, babies, while that crisis is continuing,
Speaker 1: we also have to stay focused on Russia's brutal and
Speaker 1: barbaric war against Ukraine, which rages on. Ukrainians need our help,
Speaker 1: you know. Back in September, I had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: join with leaders, activists and philanthropists at the annual meeting
Speaker 1: of the Clinton Global Initiative what we call CIGI in
Speaker 1: New York. Together with First Lady Olena Zelenska, we announced
Speaker 1: the launch of a CGI Ukraine Action Network that's a
Speaker 1: coalition of partners committed to supporting the people of Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Since its invasion of Ukraine in February of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: Russia has violated all the rules of engagement, committed war
Speaker 1: crimes and genocide. Thousands and thousands of Ukrainian civilians have
Speaker 1: been injured and killed indiscriminately, and thousands of Ukrainian children
Speaker 1: have been kidnapped. In the face of this violence and devastation,
Speaker 1: people of goodwill all around the world are stepping up,
Speaker 1: helping to supper sport the humanitarian crises on the ground.
Speaker 1: I want to share with you my conversations with two
Speaker 1: such people who are making an incredible difference. Both of
Speaker 1: my guests today have been doing everything they can to
Speaker 1: support the people of Ukraine in their brave and necessary
Speaker 1: fight to defend their homeland, to defend their freedom, to
Speaker 1: determine their own future, and both are members of our
Speaker 1: CGI Ukraine Action Network through their respective organizations. Later, I'll
Speaker 1: be talking with actor and director Liev Schreiber, who co
Speaker 1: founded Blue Chech Ukraine, an organization that he will tell
Speaker 1: us about. But first I want to introduce you to
Speaker 1: Olga Rudneva. Since Russia first invaded Crimea back in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: Olga has been working to support veterans, women and to
Speaker 1: train paramedics. The following Russia's full scale invasion in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, Olga and two partners quickly saw the need
Speaker 1: for another vital service, providing prosthetic limbs along with rehabilitative
Speaker 1: services to the hundreds of soldiers as well as civilians
Speaker 1: who have lost their limbs in this terrible war, and
Speaker 1: so they created the Superhuman's Center, a rehabilitation clinic that
Speaker 1: does just that. As CEO, Olga brings her invaluable skills
Speaker 1: as a leader and an entrepreneur. But you know, even
Speaker 1: more impressive to me, as you'll hear, is the courage
Speaker 1: and humanity she brings to this very difficult and emotionally
Speaker 1: challenging work. I am honored to be speaking with her, So, Olga,
Speaker 1: welcome to you and me both. And I had the
Speaker 1: honor of seeing you at the Clinton Global Initiative in
Speaker 1: September in New York City. Recently. Where am I talking
Speaker 1: to you now?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 3: I'm in Kiev and we just survived a very horrid
Speaker 3: night of rocket attacks on Odessa, so it was a
Speaker 3: lot of air as Syrians during the nighttime. But I'm
Speaker 3: in Kiev for the next couple of days and then
Speaker 3: back to Lviv to Superhuman Center.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sorry that you and every other person in
Speaker 1: Ukraine has to continue to suffer from this terrible war,
Speaker 1: but there are so many Ukrainians who are doing everything
Speaker 1: they know to do, and you're one of them. And
Speaker 1: I want you to tell our listeners about the organization
Speaker 1: that you and others have started called Superhumans. What is it? Olga?
Speaker 3: First of all, I want to say, please do not
Speaker 3: feel sorry for us. We know what we are fighting for.
Speaker 3: We are fighting for our freedom, independence and the right
Speaker 3: to be a country. So please be proud of us,
Speaker 3: and we need support. You know, we can win this war,
Speaker 3: but we can't win it without external support. A year
Speaker 3: ago we decided to look what we can do today
Speaker 3: for tomorrow because we are doing at the beginning of
Speaker 3: war with my partners, that humanitarian warehouse where we are
Speaker 3: helping foreigners who collected humanitarian aid to bring this aid
Speaker 3: to Ukraine and distribute that amongst those who needed. So
Speaker 3: we thought, okay, what else can we do because we
Speaker 3: couldn't sleep, we couldn't eat normally. The only thing that
Speaker 3: you can do is work hards you know, to help
Speaker 3: your country, and we realized that losing cleams and amputation
Speaker 3: is going to be a very big problem. So Andrestevenitzer said,
Speaker 3: let's do the prosthetic center, and we will do the
Speaker 3: predeases for people who lot their limbs. We will do rebilitation,
Speaker 3: and we will provide psychological support. So with this picture
Speaker 3: in mind, we started building superhumans in Lviv, and we
Speaker 3: built it over four and a half months during the
Speaker 3: full scale invasion, and we opened our doors on April fifteenth.
Speaker 1: Well, it's an extraordinary story, and I am in great
Speaker 1: admiration of what you and others have done. You know,
Speaker 1: I served in the United States Senate with Danny Ineway,
Speaker 1: a Medal of Honor winner during World War Two who
Speaker 1: lost his arm, And I remember having a long conversation
Speaker 1: with him about that, and I'll never forget him saying,
Speaker 1: you know, I could have not just lost an arm,
Speaker 1: but lost my life even if I'd stayed alive. But
Speaker 1: the people who took care of me, who gave me
Speaker 1: the support, who taught me how to address myself and
Speaker 1: how to do day to day activities, they gave my
Speaker 1: life back to me.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: You know, sixty percent of those people who get their
Speaker 3: brutises never used them because they actually don't know how
Speaker 3: to use Nobody taught them. And then we realized that,
Speaker 3: I know it sounds weird, but we don't need lax
Speaker 3: and we don't need arms. We need lax to come
Speaker 3: somewhere and arms to grab something, to hold, something to
Speaker 3: give a haalk to someone. So we need to give
Speaker 3: the reason for these people to leave their apartments so
Speaker 3: they will wear their prestiges. That was a point where
Speaker 3: we added one more service to Superhuman Center, the service
Speaker 3: of finding new roles for our patients, giving them not
Speaker 3: only in new arms or lags, but giving them a
Speaker 3: new life, bring them back to the economical system, to
Speaker 3: the civil life and to their families.
Speaker 1: It's a big challenge you're facing. I mean, you do
Speaker 1: have thousands of Ukrainian civilians, even children, as well as
Speaker 1: your brave soldiers needing prosthetics, and it's important to underscore
Speaker 1: that part of the reason you have so many injuries
Speaker 1: is how absolutely evil the Russians have been in their
Speaker 1: placement of bombs and minds. Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? There are two issues that Ukraine is facing. The
Speaker 3: first one is mines. They are all over Ukraine forty
Speaker 3: percent of Ukrainian territory is mine. And you know, we
Speaker 3: often say that if the war over tomorrow, it'll take
Speaker 3: us years to the mine. And also mines are very tricky.
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes they look nice or they are are
Speaker 3: hidden in children toys. In my own house, it was
Speaker 3: in the Washington machine. Andre Stavnitzer had it at his
Speaker 3: house at the kitchen. So they are targeted at civilians.
Speaker 3: That's one issue. Another issue, Russians are targeting paramedics and
Speaker 3: medics at the front lines. Medics are very often to
Speaker 3: be killed first so they can't save lives, and medic
Speaker 3: vocation course, they are targeted by Russian So that means
Speaker 3: the person who was wounded, even with a minor injury,
Speaker 3: they put turniquets very high and then it takes sometimes
Speaker 3: ten hours by his or her comrades to take the
Speaker 3: person out to the stabilization point. During these ten hours,
Speaker 3: you just lose your hand up to the shelter and
Speaker 3: that brings us multiple amputations. It brings us high amputation.
Speaker 3: They're very expensive to deal with and they are very
Speaker 3: difficult to you know, to teach this person to walk
Speaker 3: or to operade within new hand. So that's two issues.
Speaker 3: And it's it's a barbarian approach. Because every war has
Speaker 3: some rules. This war doesn't have any rules. Russians breaking
Speaker 3: the rules all the time. They don't care about civilians.
Speaker 3: They target press when they see that it's media. Ah,
Speaker 3: they target paramedics, and they don't care about children.
Speaker 2: And that's the war. You know, we are surviving for
Speaker 2: year and a half already.
Speaker 1: It's really important to me to stress that as terrible
Speaker 1: as war is under any circumstance, which we all understand,
Speaker 1: the attitude of the Russians led by Putin is genocidal.
Speaker 1: I mean, he wants to wipe out Ukrainian people because
Speaker 1: you've had the courage, the temerity even to stand up
Speaker 1: and defend yourselves. And so nobody is safe. There's no
Speaker 1: mercy shown, there's no rules, so violating every convention, the
Speaker 1: Geneva Conventions on war, everything one can imagine. And it's
Speaker 1: why I want Americans to realize that your war is
Speaker 1: our war, Your fight is our fight. But you know, Olga,
Speaker 1: you've set this up so quickly. How did you do it?
Speaker 1: First of all, you were building it in the middle
Speaker 1: of a war, and you were equipping it, and you
Speaker 1: were recruiting personnel for it. How were you able to
Speaker 1: get all that done in such a short period of time.
Speaker 3: I should say, you know, huge thanks to American people.
Speaker 3: You know, we have amazing donor Howard Buffett Foundation. Howard
Speaker 3: was the first person who trusted in us, and we
Speaker 3: told him we want to do that, and he took
Speaker 3: the most difficult part, which is you know, building and
Speaker 3: reconstruction and equipment. He said, okay, you do the work
Speaker 3: and I'll cover expenses. And yeah, we did reconstruct that
Speaker 3: in four and a half months. Equipped that, you know,
Speaker 3: understanding that we need to act as fast as possible.
Speaker 3: I remember Christmas Day when all construction workers said they're
Speaker 3: not going to work because it's a holiday. So we said, okay,
Speaker 3: we will bring you to the installation of bionic arm.
Speaker 3: For construction workers, losing the arm is actually, you know,
Speaker 3: the end of the world. So they saw the guy
Speaker 3: who lost the arm and we were installing this bionic
Speaker 3: arm and we said, listen, we have to install it
Speaker 3: in the corridor literally, and they said, okay, wait, we understand.
Speaker 3: And they all went to the construction site and they
Speaker 3: all worked all holidays, including Christmas Day, because they realized
Speaker 3: what we are doing and why we are doing and
Speaker 3: the most important for whom we are doing that. So
Speaker 3: that helped us. You know, this motivation and the fact
Speaker 3: that everyone on the construction site knew what they do
Speaker 3: and why they do. That helped us to be very quick.
Speaker 3: And when we started hiring the team and we realized
Speaker 3: that it's not enough just to build amazing center and
Speaker 3: bring the best equipment.
Speaker 2: We don't have expertise in Ukraine.
Speaker 3: So we started training especialists all over the world and
Speaker 3: the world was very open. They said okay, some came
Speaker 3: to Ukraine, some accepted us. So we trained the team
Speaker 3: starting like from February and on April we were al
Speaker 3: ready to opened our doors and we already at that
Speaker 3: time had three hundred patients inline. Right now we have
Speaker 3: eight hundred patients in line waiting for their prestiges.
Speaker 1: And how many people have you treated since you've been.
Speaker 3: Open since mid of April. We installed two hundred precises.
Speaker 3: But it's important to say that we are dealing with
Speaker 3: the most difficult cases. It's a lot of people who
Speaker 3: got rejection from other centers because of very high imputations,
Speaker 3: double triple and putations.
Speaker 2: We have a patient in Ukraine.
Speaker 3: He was told in Ukraine and abroad that he's probably
Speaker 3: will never ever gonna walk. And I see him walking
Speaker 3: on a daily basis. I mean he's absolutely I see
Speaker 3: him planking. He's double amputy. Yeah, he's planking. I will
Speaker 3: send the video. He is literally he's planking and he's
Speaker 3: doing you know, his apps.
Speaker 2: And I look at him. He is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 3: He's already going out on the street and every time
Speaker 3: I ask him it's difficult, He's like, no, I'm fine,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna walk. So he is an amazing inspiration for me.
Speaker 3: So we take difficult cases. These patients are with us
Speaker 3: for more than a month very often, and I wish
Speaker 3: we could do more pertises.
Speaker 2: But who would look after difficult cases?
Speaker 3: Who would look after cases where people had psychological problem?
Speaker 3: Because we had several patients and they were feeling pain
Speaker 3: all the time and we couldn't. You know, we had
Speaker 3: this civilian lady, she was in a bus for her son.
Speaker 3: Out of eight people, four were killed, so she survived.
Speaker 3: We brought her to Germany at that time and she said,
Speaker 3: I can't wear prestigos because it's I'm feeling pain because
Speaker 3: of burns. We brought her to Kief and then psychologists
Speaker 3: said that she has psychogenic pain. She thinks she is
Speaker 3: in pain, but she is not. And the problem was
Speaker 3: she's from her son. Her house was fully burnt out,
Speaker 3: and she was afraid that. As soon as we installed
Speaker 3: her proteases, we discharged her. She has to go back
Speaker 3: home and there is no home, and her mind was
Speaker 3: thinking that she is in pain. So we helped her
Speaker 3: to find a job, We found her place to live.
Speaker 3: She's wearing prestiss. She is fifty six. She is happy,
Speaker 3: she reunited with the family. She's living in the western
Speaker 3: part of Ukraine. You know that kind of support people
Speaker 3: need here. Sometimes it's just to talk with the psychologist.
Speaker 3: So lots of stories, lots of stories.
Speaker 1: Taking a quick break, stay with us. You know, the
Speaker 1: courage of the Ukrainian people has been tested time and
Speaker 1: time again. How do you keep that energy? How do
Speaker 1: you keep being resilient? You know, every one of us
Speaker 1: as human beings, you know, we get exhausted, we get tired.
Speaker 1: How do you keep going?
Speaker 3: The first thing again, we know what we are fighting for.
Speaker 3: It's very important. We just know what we are fighting for.
Speaker 3: I think this is the most important thing that you know,
Speaker 3: we understand that we are fighting for our right to
Speaker 3: speak our language, for our right to wake up in
Speaker 3: our country, in our cities and our houses, and we
Speaker 3: want to have the rights.
Speaker 2: To go on my done if we don't like our governments.
Speaker 1: You know, that's Ukrainians, that's democracy, that's free.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, for the Russians, I guess it's going
Speaker 3: to be very big tragedy after the war. People don't
Speaker 3: know what are they fighting for.
Speaker 1: I agree with you that there is going to be
Speaker 1: some kind of reckoning. I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but there will be some reckoning inside Russia. So how
Speaker 1: do you see the next year for superhumans? Are you
Speaker 1: trying to get more funding, are you trying to build
Speaker 1: satellite offices? Are you trying to recruit more people?
Speaker 3: First of all, we are launching one more service, which
Speaker 3: is reconstructive surgery. We have people who literally lost their faces,
Speaker 3: and losing your face is like closing care identity. So
Speaker 3: one more service restoring faces, ability to breathe, ability to see,
Speaker 3: ability to hear, and we want to scale up. We
Speaker 3: are looking at five more regions. I'm not sure we're
Speaker 3: going to do five more next year, but at least
Speaker 3: two more because we need to provide services closer to
Speaker 3: the places where our patients are. Ukraine is a very
Speaker 3: big country. We are at the western part of Ukraine
Speaker 3: at the most safe place, but we want to go
Speaker 3: closer to the front lines to open one more two
Speaker 3: more superhumans in twenty twenty four, one more service feeding
Speaker 3: with the prestigious more people. Right now, we can do
Speaker 3: fifty patients. It's one million dollars only in prosthetic components.
Speaker 3: It's very expensive things, but we need to do two
Speaker 3: hundred three hundred per months because the need is very big.
Speaker 1: Well, part of the reason I wanted to talk with
Speaker 1: you is that I have a small understanding because along
Speaker 1: with the late Senator John McCain, I helped to raise
Speaker 1: money for the Intrepid Center that does exactly what you're
Speaker 1: talking about in our country, and it was established to
Speaker 1: take care of our returning soldiers who had been injured
Speaker 1: in Iraq at Afghanistan. So I have a special caring
Speaker 1: for what you're doing because I know what a difference
Speaker 1: it can make as we get close to closing oga.
Speaker 1: What gives you hope for the future of your country.
Speaker 3: You know, maybe we are over evaluating, you know, the
Speaker 3: role of Ukraine. But we see right now Ukraine as
Speaker 3: a country that fights the world evolved, which is Russia.
Speaker 3: If Russia will invade Ukraine, it can do to anyone
Speaker 3: in this world. So that gives us hope that we
Speaker 3: have a special mission, you know, to fight for the
Speaker 3: whole world. And I think that it's probably it helps,
Speaker 3: you know, sometimes to feel that you are a hero. Also,
Speaker 3: these people that I see every day. There's people that
Speaker 3: walk in in a wheelchair and three days later they
Speaker 3: walk to me and they hug me. They give me
Speaker 3: hope every time when I tell them, I'm sorry that
Speaker 3: it happened to you, and they tell me, don't be sorry.
Speaker 3: I'm very proud of losing my legs because it's my
Speaker 3: input in the victory of Ukraine. When I hear that,
Speaker 3: that gives me hope. What else gives me hope? People
Speaker 3: are delivering kids in this country, you know. I was
Speaker 3: really surprised when I heard about my first friend who
Speaker 3: was pregnant, and I was like, oh my god, people
Speaker 3: still want to have kids, and she's like, of course,
Speaker 3: life's go on. When I go on the streets, I
Speaker 3: see food delivery. It gives me hope. You know, even
Speaker 3: during air Syrians there is someone cycling, you know, delivering
Speaker 3: the food because they have to be on time. That
Speaker 3: gives me hope, you know. And kids go to school,
Speaker 3: That gives me hope. You know, women put on makeup,
Speaker 3: go to work, you know, and providing for their children
Speaker 3: when men are at the war. So we didn't give up,
Speaker 3: and that's enough hope to keep moving. When you see
Speaker 3: that we are still alive, it gives you energy to
Speaker 3: keep living, you know. I think that's how it works.
Speaker 1: I think that's how it works. And it is an
Speaker 1: existential struggle between good and evil. And when the history
Speaker 1: of this era is written and the final victory is one,
Speaker 1: the world will owe Ukraine and the Ukrainian people a
Speaker 1: big debt. Augus, thank you so much. I'm going to
Speaker 1: give you the last word. Anything else you'd like to
Speaker 1: tell our listeners.
Speaker 3: Please stand with Ukraine. We proved that we are brave,
Speaker 3: but we need support of the world to keep going.
Speaker 3: And we will definitely win this war. And one day
Speaker 3: we're going to celebrate the victory the whole world together
Speaker 3: with Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Well, I look forward when we can get it arranged
Speaker 1: to come to Ukraine and visit Superhumans and so many
Speaker 1: of the other wonderful people we're working with at the
Speaker 1: Clint Global Initiative who understand how important it is that
Speaker 1: we stand with you. Thank you so much, Olga, and
Speaker 1: keep doing that great work.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Waiting for you at Superhumans.
Speaker 3: It'll be a great present and surprise for our patients
Speaker 3: and our doctors.
Speaker 1: To find out more about Superhumans and to donate to
Speaker 1: support their essential work on the ground in Ukraine. Go
Speaker 1: to superhumans dot com. Now my next guest, I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to say is is more of a household name.
Speaker 1: Maybe you first saw him on the big screen in
Speaker 1: the Scream trilogy if you're into horror films. Leev Schreiber
Speaker 1: also wrote and directed the film Everything Is Illuminated, which
Speaker 1: he filmed on location in Ukraine. He's also done a
Speaker 1: lot of stage work, Shakespeare, the Classics, you name it.
Speaker 1: But I'm talking to him today because of the remarkable
Speaker 1: way he has stepped out onto the world stage to
Speaker 1: lend a hand to Ukrainians. Leev is the co founder
Speaker 1: and major cheerleader for Bluezech Ukraine, an organization that identifies
Speaker 1: vets and fasttracks urgent financial support to Ukrainian groups providing
Speaker 1: critical humanitarian aid on the front lines. Lee have also
Speaker 1: joined us at CGI in September, and I'm really happy
Speaker 1: to be able to speak to him again.
Speaker 4: Hello Secretary Glinton.
Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, Oh, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4: I'm great. We've resolved all of the technical issues.
Speaker 1: That's always a good sign.
Speaker 4: I was really good at this stuff until I hit
Speaker 4: about forty and then for some reason it just stopped.
Speaker 4: And now I have to find a young person, which
Speaker 4: is a clear sign.
Speaker 1: That's called evolution. It's called evolution, right, Well, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for joining us on the podcast. I'm not
Speaker 1: only a fan, which I will confess before we start
Speaker 1: of your body of work, but I am a bigger
Speaker 1: fan because of you, know the very smart way that
Speaker 1: you are working to help Ukraine in its struggle against
Speaker 1: the barbaric invasion by Russia. I would love for you
Speaker 1: to tell our listeners what is Blue Check Ukraine, How
Speaker 1: did you get involved, and what makes it different from
Speaker 1: other aid organizations.
Speaker 4: Well, the headline answer is that Blue Check is an
Speaker 4: effort to fast track financial support primarily to local NGOs
Speaker 4: in Ukraine. A humanitarian watchdog group out of the UK
Speaker 4: called Humanitarian Outcomes, published two reports, one last June that
Speaker 4: reported that of the two point six billion that had
Speaker 4: been donated to Ukraine, only six million of that had
Speaker 4: made it to the actual local NGOs on the ground,
Speaker 4: who arguably are really doing most of the work. They
Speaker 4: published a new one in May which said that one
Speaker 4: percent of the donations were going to these local ENGOs
Speaker 4: and so that they were recommending really figuring out ways
Speaker 4: to localize aid because it's these local communities who are
Speaker 4: most knowledgeable about what the needs are, how to fulfill them,
Speaker 4: the language, the intelligence, the resources, the personnel, and so
Speaker 4: Blue Check is really just a group of friends trying
Speaker 4: to get the message through to people that the Ukrainians
Speaker 4: are really the best equipped people to help themselves. Need
Speaker 4: to do is support them, is really to continue to
Speaker 4: support them. And so I got into it because a
Speaker 4: friend a friend called me and I'd made a film
Speaker 4: about Ukraine, and so they thought I would know something
Speaker 4: about Ukraine, which I really don't. I just made a
Speaker 4: film and they said how can we help? And I
Speaker 4: really didn't know where to send them. So I just
Speaker 4: thought the normal avenues like Red Cross and all of
Speaker 4: these international aid organizations who are all doing great work.
Speaker 4: The problem is that in a situation like a war,
Speaker 4: it's very acute and you have to move very very quickly,
Speaker 4: and a lot of these larger international aid groups, because
Speaker 4: of their overhead, because of their liability, because they are
Speaker 4: not always able to work in country, are a little
Speaker 4: slower to react. And we've got a situation, as you
Speaker 4: well know, that is very acute and we need to
Speaker 4: respond as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many important areas of need right
Speaker 1: now in Ukraine that people can feel overwhelmed. And you
Speaker 1: I've been there, talk a little bit about what you've
Speaker 1: actually seen on the ground, because the resilience, the smarts
Speaker 1: of the Ukrainian people who are trying to deliver this
Speaker 1: aid is really impressive.
Speaker 4: They're extraordinary, they really are. We have twenty two partners
Speaker 4: right now. For the most part, we were looking for
Speaker 4: NGOs that are in Ukraine, but we're also finding people
Speaker 4: who have volunteered their services, extraordinary Americans. There's a guy
Speaker 4: named Ryan Hendrickson who I am just so impressed by,
Speaker 4: who is a retired Special Forces Green Beret Army guy
Speaker 4: who was injured by a landmine himself and now he
Speaker 4: makes these humanitarian missions to Ukraine to demine these villages,
Speaker 4: which is an extraordinary service to them because obviously he's
Speaker 4: really knowledgeable in this from given his experience and background.
Speaker 4: There's another group called Project Victory, which is a group
Speaker 4: of US veterans who have gone over there to basically
Speaker 4: do everything. They initially came to teach stop bleeding techniques
Speaker 4: and they've gone on to do evacuations, shelter reinforcements. When
Speaker 4: the Kokova Dam was destroyed by the Russians, they were
Speaker 4: our first contacts on the ground who told us that
Speaker 4: we needed to get water into the populations there. And
Speaker 4: because these guys our veterans, they know how to handle
Speaker 4: themselves in frontline situations. You know, we pretty much have
Speaker 4: a group in every oblast in the country with a
Speaker 4: concentration on vulnerable populations, particularly elderly people, women and children,
Speaker 4: injured civilians. We have a group called Stirrenki, which is
Speaker 4: support for the elderly, which is actually quite a big
Speaker 4: issue in terms of the work we do on the
Speaker 4: front lines, because they're the ones who don't leave.
Speaker 1: Explain that you talked about that at CGI, and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people were surprised because they might
Speaker 1: have thought, oh, well, first get the elderly out, but
Speaker 1: the elderly won't leave.
Speaker 4: They don't want to leave. It's their land and they're there,
Speaker 4: as you could understand. Actually, you know, these people have
Speaker 4: built their farms and their homes on these lands, and
Speaker 4: it's their land, and in their minds they're not giving
Speaker 4: it up. And as you mentioned, they're very strong, resilient,
Speaker 4: and I would add.
Speaker 1: Tough people, stubborn, maybe stubborn a little bit.
Speaker 4: They're not afraid of the Russians. And so unfortunately, when
Speaker 4: you have these missile attacks, it's very often that you
Speaker 4: see elderly people becoming displaced or losing their homes or
Speaker 4: getting injured. So Sirrenki is a group that exclusively works
Speaker 4: to service them, to evacuate them, to bring unfortunately because
Speaker 4: most of them won't evacuate, to bring them warming kits,
Speaker 4: to bring them food, to reinforce their homes, shelters, things
Speaker 4: like that. And then of course you have the non
Speaker 4: material support, you know, like gender specific aid groups like
Speaker 4: the Women's Center, because as you probably know, the men
Speaker 4: who are of fighting age are all conscripted into military service,
Speaker 4: so that leaves a lot of these single moms out there,
Speaker 4: and the Women's Center was an extraordinary group that was
Speaker 4: team of lawyers that was really working for gender equality
Speaker 4: before the war, and after the war switched over realized
Speaker 4: that they needed to provide evacuation services, women's health services, counseling,
Speaker 4: and things like that for mothers and children. So there's
Speaker 4: a lot. They're doing a lot.
Speaker 1: They are doing a lot, and you know, when you
Speaker 1: hear the stories of what they're up against, it just
Speaker 1: enrages me. That it does to you too, that here
Speaker 1: we are twenty twenty three and we have a regime
Speaker 1: led by Vladimir Putin that has committed every crime against humanity,
Speaker 1: every war crime. And I think there's a real need
Speaker 1: for Americans, all of us, to recognize their fight is
Speaker 1: our fight. But what got you so motivated to help?
Speaker 1: Because you've gone pretty far in making the case as
Speaker 1: to why it their fight is our fight.
Speaker 4: You know, I've very moved and driven in many ways
Speaker 4: by my grandfather's generation, that is to say, the generation
Speaker 4: of Americans who fought for democracy in World War Two. Primarily,
Speaker 4: I was also very impressed by the ones who fought
Speaker 4: in the Spanish American Civil war without an organized military
Speaker 4: to push back against fascism, and it feels like as
Speaker 4: I watched this war unfold on television with my children
Speaker 4: on the couch, and I saw these sort of normal
Speaker 4: looking middle aged men saying goodbye to their wives and
Speaker 4: children going off to fight a war in which I'm
Speaker 4: sure you and I both thought they were vastly outnumbered
Speaker 4: and out gunned, and it felt they're not coming back.
Speaker 4: This is really horrible. And as I thought about it,
Speaker 4: what they're fighting for, sovereignty, freedom, the right to raise
Speaker 4: their children the way they want to raise them, to
Speaker 4: speak the language that they want to speak. Those are
Speaker 4: American values, and why aren't we in this? It has
Speaker 4: so little to do with me having some Ukrainian ancestry,
Speaker 4: and everything to do with what I believe American values
Speaker 4: are and what our place is in the geopolitical world,
Speaker 4: of what we provide, what we provide to our own citizens,
Speaker 4: and the opportunity that we present to those who are persecuted.
Speaker 4: And it just felt, you know, after having spent the
Speaker 4: past twenty some odd years of my life being very
Speaker 4: well rewarded by my career and my life here, that
Speaker 4: it was the least I could do to respond to something,
Speaker 4: and the minute that my celebrity, which had really done
Speaker 4: nothing but break the misery to this point, and my children.
Speaker 4: It makes raising children incredibly difficult, as you.
Speaker 1: Probably, Yeah, I can relate to.
Speaker 4: That extraordinary job. Yeah, it just it suddenly was paying
Speaker 4: back in dividends. Like I was able to accomplish things.
Speaker 4: I was able to speak to people like you. I
Speaker 4: was able to get the attention of the media, and
Speaker 4: I was able to point focus where I felt focus
Speaker 4: should be pointed. And that was an incredibly good feeling.
Speaker 1: You know, it sounds very much like it was a
Speaker 1: combination of your head and your heart. I mean, you
Speaker 1: really brought it all together in this. And you've actually
Speaker 1: been to Ukraine, most of our listeners, haven't. I think
Speaker 1: you've made a film inside Ukraine.
Speaker 4: Well, I've made a few. Now. Initially, what I was
Speaker 4: trying to do was to sort of film the situation
Speaker 4: on the ground in the hopes that I would bring
Speaker 4: those films back and they would raise money. Yes, that's
Speaker 4: obviously what we're trying to do, is we're trying to
Speaker 4: raise money to fund these organizations. And then once I
Speaker 4: got to meet President Lensky and had a couple of
Speaker 4: interviews and talks with him, we decided together that making
Speaker 4: a documentary would be useful. So I sat down with
Speaker 4: the president for a series of interviews, and Andre Singer,
Speaker 4: who made a really wonderful portrait of Korbache'v, worked with
Speaker 4: me on the film.
Speaker 1: Also has that come out yet?
Speaker 4: No, it hasn't. We've just finished.
Speaker 1: Thank you for finishing it. I mean, it's really I
Speaker 1: think we should flood the zone. There needs to be
Speaker 1: as many documentaries, you know, fictional narratives that are kind
Speaker 1: of docu dramas.
Speaker 4: It's impossible for people to tell unless they've seen it,
Speaker 4: unless they see it and they feel it. And that's
Speaker 4: the other thing is I think that we are essentially
Speaker 4: emotional creatures. And you're right to say I came in
Speaker 4: with my head in my heart. I would say mostly
Speaker 4: my heart, because my head is getting thicker at this
Speaker 4: point in my life.
Speaker 1: But well, you've taken a lot of blows to it
Speaker 1: in your film career.
Speaker 4: When you feel something, it's true, you know, you know
Speaker 4: it exists in your bones. And that thing about seeing
Speaker 4: these stories, I'm really I can't begin to say how
Speaker 4: impressed I am by the Ukrainian people, and also how
Speaker 4: concerned I am that they're getting tired and that we
Speaker 4: need to continue to support them.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. You know, when you talk about
Speaker 1: what you're doing and the fact that you met President Zelenski,
Speaker 1: describe for our listeners what you thought of him. This
Speaker 1: Youngish man who you know somewhat improbably got elected president
Speaker 1: in the first place, then gets thrust into wartime leadership.
Speaker 1: And I see you grinning on the video.
Speaker 4: Well, no one was expecting President Zelenski's response. No one
Speaker 4: was expecting that level of courage. I grinned because we
Speaker 4: shared a profession. And you know people say such awful
Speaker 4: things about actors, Well here's one, here's one who proved
Speaker 4: his metal. But no one was expecting that level of courage, frankly,
Speaker 4: and it's exactly what the world. It's not just what
Speaker 4: Ukraine need, it's what the world needed. Those principles and
Speaker 4: that dignity. That little recording that he made on his
Speaker 4: phone after the first night, smiling with the other generals,
Speaker 4: saying yatut moitut at these words in Ukrainians you probably know,
Speaker 4: mean we are here. I'm here, the President's here, We're
Speaker 4: not going anywhere, and the part that resonated for me. Moitut,
Speaker 4: we're here, We're here together. That's what matters, that we
Speaker 4: can face this down, we can stand down bullies. He's
Speaker 4: not a tall guy, you know. Most people know him
Speaker 4: as one of the funniest actors to ever come out
Speaker 4: of the entertainment industry in Ukraine, and super talented, super intelligent,
Speaker 4: but not Henry the Fifth. And here he had the intelligence,
Speaker 4: he had the dignity, he had the humanity to make
Speaker 4: the right choice. He knew what the right choice was,
Speaker 4: that some things are worth putting your life on the
Speaker 4: line for. And for me that resonated so deeply with
Speaker 4: my American values and the patriots in our history and
Speaker 4: our life who made our lives possible. I owe them
Speaker 4: a debt, you know, and I owe people like him
Speaker 4: a debt. And so I was incredibly honored to get
Speaker 4: to meet him. And Madame Zelenska, as you know, as
Speaker 4: well as also extraordinary.
Speaker 1: In her own she really is too. You mentioned that
Speaker 1: you were watching Ukraine coverage with your children. I know
Speaker 1: you've just had a new baby, so I assume it's
Speaker 1: your two older children, right, Yes, that sounded so important
Speaker 1: to me that you were watching with your children and
Speaker 1: talking to them about what they were seeing. What was
Speaker 1: that experience likelyav.
Speaker 4: I have to admit that it was a selfish one
Speaker 4: that I was looking at these people serving their country
Speaker 4: and I was thinking what have I done as I
Speaker 4: sat there with my kids, and how could I explain
Speaker 4: our lives in a way that made sense to them?
Speaker 4: But I also I think it was important to expose
Speaker 4: them to the situation. They were old enough, in my opinion,
Speaker 4: Guy was thirteen and Sasha was fifteen to understand it,
Speaker 4: or at least to ask questions and to understand who
Speaker 4: we are and by that I don't mean Ukrainian. By that,
Speaker 4: I mean Americans and where we fit into something like this,
Speaker 4: and what we do when this kind of barbarism. You know,
Speaker 4: the military strategy that he's employing that attacks not just
Speaker 4: civilian infrastructure but medical infrastructure.
Speaker 1: That's right, hospitals.
Speaker 4: Intentionally, Which is why we really, really really need to
Speaker 4: keep our eye on Ukraine and to continue to help
Speaker 4: our brothers and sisters who are fighting for those values.
Speaker 1: Amen, Well, I can't thank you enough for stepping up
Speaker 1: and stepping into this important matter and using your reach
Speaker 1: to try to keep us all focused on what's really important.
Speaker 1: Thank you so very.
Speaker 4: Much, Thank you, Madam Secretary.
Speaker 1: To learn more about the work Blue Check Ukraine is doing,
Speaker 1: or to make a donation that they can get directly
Speaker 1: into the hands of people on the ground in Ukraine
Speaker 1: doing essential work, go to blue Check dot in. I
Speaker 1: know that the sheer number of critical hotspots simmering across
Speaker 1: our globe right now can be overwhelming, and yes it
Speaker 1: is hard to follow it all, to make sense of
Speaker 1: it all, but we cannot look away and we cannot
Speaker 1: turn inward. The fight for Ukraine's freedom is far from over,
Speaker 1: and it's vital that we not lose focus on the
Speaker 1: essential need to secure peace and safety for all people.
Speaker 1: So take care, hold your loved ones close, and let's
Speaker 1: do everything we can to keep fighting for peace, democracy
Speaker 1: and security, you and me both. Is brought to you
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