WEBVTT - Liev Schreiber on BlueCheck and Aid to Ukraine 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:05.520 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:10.720 Thing from my Heart Radio. The war in Ukraine has 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.600 been raging for nearly nine months now, but the conflict 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:19.360 between Ukraine and Russia has much deeper roots. In late 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.520 two thousand thirteen and early two thousand fourteen, hundreds of 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.600 thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets in protests against 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:32.279 their own governments pro Russian policies. The movement, known as 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.040 the Mid Uprising, led to the deaths of more than 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.320 one hundred people in Kiev and the ousting of President 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:45.640 Viktor Yanukovich. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in March two 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:50.120 thousand fourteen, driving the region into an ongoing conflict that 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:53.599 would culminate in a full scale invasion of Ukraine. On 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:59.720 February two thousand two, My Guest Today, actor writer and 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.440 rector Leev Schreiber was just one of the millions of 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:08.440 Americans watching the war unfold on television until he decided 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.840 to turn his grief into action. Schreiber is a co 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.720 founder of the nonprofit Blue Check Ukraine. The group's mission 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:22.280 is to fast track financial resources directly to organizations providing 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:26.679 support and life saving aid to Ukrainians on the front lines. 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.759 With such an impressive effort, I wanted to know more 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.959 about Schreiber's advocacy work. What's an example of other things 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.480 you were involved with? Not much, you know, I did. 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:41.640 I worked with the Feeding Him Harvest Feeding America. Just 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.360 because I like to take the kids to on Thanksgiving, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.200 we had this ritual where we'd go to the you know, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.520 the soup kitchen, the soup kitchen on Bowerie and it 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.520 was fun for the kids and it was great for me, 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.160 and it was a way of sort of showing them 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.680 give yeah, right, give something back. But this was the 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:58.280 first one where I felt like I had to do 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.040 it or I was gonna lose my mind. Why. You know, 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.920 the story is that I have Ukrainian ancestry, right like 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:11.400 my grandparents. That's that's what gets me in the room. 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:13.360 But the reality is, i was watching the war on 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:15.919 the couch with the kids, and I'm looking at my kids, 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:22.160 and I'm thinking a about my own legacy as a person, 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:24.680 as a man, as a father, and all those things 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:27.800 I'm thinking about. I'm looking at these guys who are 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:33.440 you know, like painters and graphic designers, and custodians who 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.800 are you know, kissing their wives and children goodbye and 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.000 getting on a bus to go fighting the war in 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:45.600 which they're wildly outnumbered and outgunned. And I'm I'm thinking, well, 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.360 those are Ukrainians, and and am I Ukrainian at all? 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.280 Could I say goodbye to my kids if I had to, 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:57.720 if I were in some existential fight for our homes 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.440 and our lives? And the answer was not, like I 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.000 couldn't do that, And it's like, no, I'm I'm not Ukrainian. 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.440 And then what am I am? American? Right? And And 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.000 I was just thinking about how much I'd take for 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.119 granted as an American that my grandparents didn't, that they 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.840 fought for the freedoms and the liberties that we have today, 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.960 and their desire to live in a country where their 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.920 children could aspire to become what I've become and do 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:30.880 the things that I've been able to do. I owe 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.280 them a debt for that. And it's that fights being 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.680 fought again in Ukraine. And the other thing that really 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:40.880 captured my imagination about is that the thing I struggle 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.320 with here is that the incredible polarization we've got going 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.120 in in this country in politics and the partisanship and 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.840 the disinformation and the misinformation. And nowhere is that struggle 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.520 clearer to me than in Ukraine, the disinformation that's coming 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.520 about the disinformation in American media. Yeah, I mean it 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:05.400 feels like, with the decline of higher education in this country, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:08.400 politics had become like a team sport. You know, there's 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.680 the reds and the blues and policy and all of 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.960 the things that actually really matter to the people who 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.159 go to the polls to vote are irrelevant. It's just 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.720 did my team win or did your team win? And 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:24.680 that's a that seems like a terrible place to send 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.919 my children, you know, And it's not how our democracy 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.640 should function. And I think what's going on in Ukraine 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.960 is is an existential fight for democracy and those values 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:38.479 that those values that we share, which which are the 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.000 right to be who you want to be, to speak 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.039 with language you want to speak, to go to what 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.000 church you want to go to to to raise your 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:47.680 children the way you want to raise them. And for 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.919 those people who don't know that when Ukraine was a 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.200 part of the Soviet Union before they break up, there 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.920 were tremendous limitations and abuses there about what people's freedoms 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.440 were in the Ukraine, there were there were independently Krainian 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.920 religious beliefs there under the Soviet system, they were pressed 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.160 and I think arguably until my dawn, the Russians were 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.279 very much controlling the Ukrainian government. I think that's why 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.920 my dad happened. And I think once that uprising occurred 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:18.600 and hundreds of thousands of people from every walks of 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.200 life went to that square and said, no, we want 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:23.440 to be part of the European community. We were we 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:28.880 reject what this puppet dictator is is proscribing for us 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.680 putin an ex crimea. He was like, okay, it's trouble, 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:39.039 I've got it. You know. As part of the the 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:43.080 Salt Talks and you know, anti nuclear periforation, Russia and 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.880 the US signed an agreement with Ukraine that if they 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.600 were the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.839 we signed an agreement with them that we pledged to 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.640 protect their borders and their sovereignties, both America and Russia, 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.680 which is part of why we're still in this. Russia 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.680 rat find that again in two thousand nine, and as 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.479 you know, in two thousand so so basically Ukraine gave 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.719 up its entire nuclear arsenal and its ability to protect itself, 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.560 which was always the design I suppose, or at least 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.240 it seems that way in retrospect looking at what Putin's done, 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.400 And so in two thousand nine Putin ratified that, and 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:22.800 then after my dawn annex Crimea, and here we are now. 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.200 I don't want to state the obvious, which is that 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.080 in America people either who don't really care, or they 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.760 don't care enough, or they don't have good information. And 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:37.760 how would you describe the historic and maybe even spiritual 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:41.599 connection between the Ukrainians and the Russians? And what I 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:45.080 mean by that is not the Russian leadership. Do the 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:49.000 Ukrainians feel any kinship with the Russian people between the 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.760 two people and they hate Putin and the government? Or 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.640 are they indifferent or actively hostile toward the Russian people. 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.960 I'm no expert on this by any stretch of the imagination. 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.800 You know, I got a guy who's really really smart 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.920 about this is Timothy Snyder. From what I know from 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.719 traveling to Ukraine over the past year, there's a tremendous 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:13.160 amount of ill will from the average Ukrainian to the 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.680 average Russian Having said that, I think there are plenty 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.760 of Russians, as we can see from the little bit 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.240 of news that's that makes its way out of Moscow, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:28.440 who are profoundly against what's happening in Ukraine. And I 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.480 suppose the tragedy of all of this is they are brothers, 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:36.320 you know, they aren't so closely related, so closely tied. Yeah, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.920 And the reality is that for for many, many years, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.000 most Ukrainians, well most people in Eastern Europe, they spoke 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.600 Russian and they inter mixed and all of that until 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.560 they're I think, really my don was a kind of 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.880 defining moment where people said, we want to be Ukrainian, 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.200 we want a Ukrainian government, we want sovereignty, and we 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.720 want to speak our own language. Because you you want 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.160 to believe, with the limit information I have, you kind 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:04.600 of sit there in a very armchair way and go, God, 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:06.760 the Russians could probably go into Ukraine and just flatten 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.200 the whole place. Like a month, they turn the whole 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:12.119 place into an ash tray, and uh, you know, start 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.120 changing the signs into cyrillic and we're on our way. 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.920 And then you realize, is it a case of fully 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:22.560 engaged Ukrainians they're in this and the Russians are kind 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:23.960 of coming down there. A lot of them are pretty 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:25.480 half hearted about that, a a lot of them don't want 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.320 to go. And you're and and Putin is now reaping 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:29.760 what he sews in this department, and a lot of 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.559 these Russian fighters. You're like, I got no problem. It's 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.719 like Muhammad Ali, I got no problem with the Vietnamese. 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.959 Is that what's happening? Absolutely? You know, Ukrainians are in 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:44.160 an existential fight. Russians don't know what they're doing. You know, 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.320 they remember they intercepted all of those telephone calls between 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.120 those soldiers and their mothers. And he was like, Mom, 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.400 you wouldn't believe the carpentry here. The toilet seats are amazing, 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.120 you know what I mean. And these Ukrainians they've got 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.880 no choice. They win or they die. They win or 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:01.840 they have no home. They went and they have nowhere 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.120 to live. They don't they can't raise their children, they 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:06.440 can't do anything. It's over. It's their end of their country. 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.920 You started Blue Check with some partners. The war starts 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:12.959 in February. You start Blue Check in March, Yeah, lead 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:16.360 Marchia and what what how did that happen? Like, who 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:20.280 do you call first? How do you start blue check? Fortunately, 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.559 I'm not the brains behind this. I had. There's two 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:27.640 guys with thirty years of experience in humanitarian aid. A 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.520 friend of mine from dramas Yale Drama School called me, 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:32.960 Harris Fisherman, and he wanted He asked me if I 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:37.120 would do a live stream like podcasting thing with Ukrainians 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.559 that they could tell their stories and what they were experiencing. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.040 And it just didn't feel right to me. I just 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.439 I didn't like the idea of, you know, I was 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.080 just seeing too much of that on the news, the 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:49.800 idea of exploiting people's emotions to kind of show what's 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.360 going on, and it felt wrong, and I thought I 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:55.800 would be nervous and uncomfortable on that situation. So I 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.640 sort of gruffly said to my friend Harris, if you 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:00.640 want to help them, just give him some money. And 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:04.760 I got off the call, and uh so these guys 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.560 called me back. One of them's named Jason Cohne. He's 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.080 the chief public policy officer for robin Hood Now and 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.440 he used to be one of the executive directors of 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.960 Doctors Without Borders. And another guy that he works with, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:20.040 Michael Goldfarb, was the communications person for doctors about borders 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.080 as well. And this guy, Murphy Poindexter, who is, as 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.160 far as I can tell, like deep in the IC 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.640 community in Washington, UM but was working at a place 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.800 called the US Ukraine Foundation. And they said were you 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:34.800 serious about what you said that you wanted to raise 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:36.800 money for Ukraine? And I was like, oh, ship, someone's 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.880 just called my bluff and I said, yeah, I am 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.880 and uh. We quickly put together a plan that I mean, 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.360 these guys had just a ton of between between them, 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.080 thirty years of experience and humanitarian aid. And the idea 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.440 was that we were going to identify the people on 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.360 the ground in Ukraine, boots on the ground NGOs who 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.839 were doing the work to provide humanitarian aid and get 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.400 the money directly to them. I had heard of a 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.480 philanthropy app called give Well, and I thought that's a 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.320 good model. Why don't we try to do something like 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.040 that where people can see, where everything we do is 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:12.680 transparent And we wouldn't exist without Ropes and Gray, who 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.719 is the international law firm that agreed to do all 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.760 of our verification and vetting pro bono and they came 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:23.280 on and had just been amazing. And so a few 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.160 days after that, I bought a plane ticket and I 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.599 went to Poland. I started working. I was insane. I 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.079 didn't know what I was doing, but I called Jose Andreas, 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.080 who's a friend. I was working at his spot in 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.640 Poland on the border World Central Kitchen making you know, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.480 rectual stern giant. I see how Jose andres and some 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.960 loud cacaphitist thing and he's like, yeah, are you doing, 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:53.319 my friend, when are you coming over? You're coming? And 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.120 I went and and then and and we sort of 0:11:58.160 --> 0:11:59.960 I just bought the plane ticket and then we figured 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.400 what we're gonna do. Once I got there, and Murphy, 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.880 who was working at US Ukraine Foundation, and Michael and 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.720 Jason have all of these connections because of their humanitarian 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.280 aid work, and they set up all these meetings for 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.840 me with NGOs and people who were doing work on 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.040 the ground in Ukraine, and I just went in and 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.400 I met them, and it was extraordinary. I mean, I 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.040 just the resilience and the courage of these people, the 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.600 fighting spirit of these people's extraordinary. It's no wonder to 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.360 me that there they're kicking ass and taking names. Frankly, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.800 just what that's what I saw, and I saw. I 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.920 I brought a cameraman with me because I knew that 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:41.800 the next step was going to be go home and 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:46.480 raise money, right, and we filmed people like yllant to 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:50.440 Brishalik at the Leviv National Symphony, who's got this, you know, 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.400 seventy piece orchestra who can't do concerts anymore because of 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.800 the pandemic and because of the war, and so they're rehearsing. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.240 They rehearse at night and during the day they've feared 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.680 out all the seats in the theater and then places 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.200 stacked to the ceiling with boxes of medical aid and 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.800 food and clothing and things like that. And the day 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:12.320 that I arrived there with a camera, I opened the 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.400 doors to that theater and they're rehearsing Mozart's Requiem and 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.520 you can imagine that site as just like eight ft 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:24.040 high boxes of aid and these people playing Mozart's Requam, 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.959 which is one of my favorite pieces of music. And 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:31.000 it was just extraordinary footage. And brought it home and 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.200 we started raising money. We did a benefit in d 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:38.440 C where we we had the Washington National Opera orchestra 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:42.480 playing and they played along in sync with my video. 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:47.719 Was fantastic. It was just fantastic. Yeah, And that kind 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.760 of got us on our way, and you know, doing 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.760 a couple of CNN interviews and things like that, and 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:55.559 getting the word out there and having friends like you 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.880 and being able to do things like this is just 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.160 made it work. Your flu over there the first time 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.400 when April and you were there for how long, two 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.360 or three weeks and they Polish Ukrainian border. You're on 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.640 the Polish side initially, and and and you go into 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.640 Ukraine obviously because you go to the concert hall and 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.080 what did you see? You know what, There wasn't a 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.320 lot happening in Leviv. And I didn't go past Leviv 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.000 at that point, so I didn't I didn't see much 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.840 refugees fleeing exactly. Well, I saw a lot of refugees 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:26.800 because I was on the border. I went to a 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.800 bunch of field hospitals that were unfortunately too far away 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:34.080 from the action. I met with health ministers, and I 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.040 met with a few of the NGOs that we were 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.920 eventually going to sign on and give grants to. And 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.200 I saw this, you know, it's a beautiful country. It's 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.240 a really beautiful place. And the thing that I couldn't 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:48.480 I have a video that I'll play for you of 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:50.960 these like nineteen and twenty year olds in a bar. 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.680 First of all, everybody's out drinking, having like celebrating their 0:14:54.720 --> 0:15:00.360 spirit because it's extraordinary year olds singing these like hundred 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.400 year old Ukrainian folk songs drunk in this bar was 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.120 just extraordinary. Yeah, that's the spirit of the country. And 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.240 even now, which is now, it is kind of a 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:15.360 unimaginable what they're going through. Zapparija was a really good 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:17.680 example of I don't know what else to call it 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:22.640 other than putin cynicism, but the strategy of responding to 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:26.960 military advances by attacking civilian infrastructure. In Zapparijia, he hit 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.840 the main hospital, and then the night after he hit 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.480 the main hospital, he hits an apartment complex in the 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.400 middle of the night when they're sure that there are 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.640 people sleeping in their beds and are going to need 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.680 medical care. And that's the big, the big, big issue 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.600 for Ukrainians right now is medical infrastructure. I mean, he's 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.800 not only decimated the energy grids and all of the 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.320 other stuff that they're relying on to stay alive and 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:55.200 warm through this winter. And as you know, the temperatures 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.040 in Ukraine after December into January or it's all sub zero. 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.960 And but they've hit He's hit all of the medical infrastructure. 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.280 So it's alarming and it's just more important than ever 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:10.480 that we continue to provide them with the aid that 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.080 they need to keep that machine running. Most of these 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.800 doctors too, by the way, have been working since February, 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.640 you know, with no shifts off. Things like fixators for limbs, ambulances, 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.800 operating tables, all this stuff is really really essential and 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.400 that's part of why I agreed to be the ambassador 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:32.240 for the President's Fund, which is united in the medical 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.960 aid capacity. Back in June, Humanitarian Outcomes, which is a 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:42.000 sort of aid watchdog organization out of the UK, published 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.040 a report that said of the two point six billion 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.280 dollars that have been donated to Ukraine, only six million 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.320 had been activated and given to the NGOs on the 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:56.000 ground who are fighting. It's an alarming, un alarming number, 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.320 and it goes where to Red Cross and big organizations 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.640 like big multi additional big multinationals who have big overhead 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.960 and can't even operate in country because of the liabilities right. 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.560 They can also because their multinationals decide where they want 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:11.320 to send that money and sit on it as long 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.360 as they want to when you've got a very acute situation. 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:19.480 And so for us, that was a huge sign that 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.280 we were doing the right thing. That going directly to 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.760 the NGO is going directly to the people working on 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:31.320 the ground, is the way to do it. Leev Schreiber. 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.159 If you appreciate conversations that educate and inform on the 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.320 Ukrainian conflict, listen to my episode with Bryce Wilson, a 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:45.040 freelance photojournalist who reported from the front lines of Ukraine. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.399 I was at Zelenski's inauguration. It's very surreal for me 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:53.879 to have seen this huge narrative of his character, quite 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:58.480 literally a character because he has an acting background, and he, 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.200 in my opinion, will be remembered in the same vein 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:06.800 as famous Ukrainian poets, people who were invested in the 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:12.280 idea of Ukraine's independence, like Zelensky, in my opinion, is 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.880 a hero through his leadership. Here more of my conversation 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:21.200 with Bryce Wilson that here's the thing dot org after 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.800 the break. Leev Schreiber shares the story of being invited 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:37.800 to meet Ukraine's President Zelenski. I'm Alec Baldwin, and you 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:42.080 were listening to Here's the thing. Through its donation network, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.879 blue Check Ukraine provides direct financial assistance to n g 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:51.520 os in Ukraine that offer crucial services such as emergency 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:57.560 medical care, food distribution, and mental health services. I was 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:01.439 curious to hear how the Ukraine and people reacted to 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.040 the presence of Blue Check at a time of such turmoil. 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.920 They were so grateful that were we were there. They 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:11.359 were so happy to see us, that that that they 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.320 couldn't believe you came, that Americans cared that that that 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:16.600 that we were willing to even just to be there. 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:18.760 They didn't know what I was gonna do. And I'm 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:20.640 that guy from Ray Donovan. They knew who you were. 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:22.920 I'm sure the intelligent ones are like, what the hell 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.080 is this actor going to do? Right, I'm going to 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.280 go punch Pootin in the face, right exactly, you can 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.240 bring the bat out. But it it just it made 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.480 me even more convinced that I had to really be 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:36.560 effective and not waste their fucking time, not going there 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:46.240 and just hear their side, their stories and sorry, okay, 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:49.479 and come back and be like, hey, guys, look what 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.840 I did. You know what I mean? Because that you 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.280 went back again? Yeah, I went back again. So he 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:58.200 went three times and then the second time what was 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.200 the I don't say mission, but what was the uh itinerary? 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:02.600 Then you were gonna go where and do what? I 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:08.600 was going to meet the president? Yeah, like, what's well? 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.399 He heard about us because of that Humanitarian Outcomes Report, 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.719 which he was also pretty missed off about two and 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.760 uh and he invited me to become an ambassador for 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.159 United twenty four. And you know, we talked about how 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:25.680 that's Kiev, that's his that's his personal fund for Ukraine. 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.840 It's broken into three tiers. Initially it was a conflict 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.879 for me because part of what we were trying to 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.160 set up was something that was what's considered neutral aid. 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.800 In other words, it doesn't participate in any political or 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:40.960 military stuff. So they were really great to us, and 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:43.280 they carved out the medical aid piece, which is what 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.840 I represent. It was an extraordinary experience and I was 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:48.919 in Kiev. I got to see Bordianka, I got to 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.440 see Bucci, I got to see all of these things 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:54.800 that we've we've seen on television on the news, and 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:56.960 now I know, I know what it looks like. And 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.359 I got to see also all of the extraordinary help 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.119 that all of these other countries are given in lending. 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:07.400 And Adam Driver and I went to Romania and saw 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:11.160 the troops who were who were stationed there preparing and training, 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.840 and you know, all the typhoon pilots there. Does anybody 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.040 tell you what they'd like the US to do, like 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:20.399 like in a long term says, other than relief and 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:24.120 aid and sidewinder missiles or whatever the fun they wanted 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.080 the world Sam's or what we really needed, whatever the 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.960 whatever the global community can provide them in terms of weaponry. 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:32.680 In a more law terms says, do they want to 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.199 join NATO? Do they want to be in NATO? They 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:37.960 always have. I think that's pretty much what started my 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:42.320 don was that there was this collective sense of relief 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.159 and excitement about joining the European Union and NATO and 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.800 all of that, and Jankovic and the Russians never had 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.840 any intention of letting that happen, and of course he 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.960 buried it, and that's what caused the uprising. People from 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:00.359 everywhere and hundreds of thousands is a really terrific film, 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.280 Cold Winter on Fire if anyone wants to know about 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:05.720 that period that it is just extraordinary. That tells that 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:08.240 whole story very clearly. And it was just amazing to 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:13.240 see children, old people, people from every walk of life 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:15.159 just come out of their houses, pour out into the 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:18.760 streets and go to the go to Madan and and 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:21.280 say no. And they stayed there and you know, people 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:24.800 were people died and were shot at and they barricaded themselves. 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:29.239 It was I mean, you know, revolution. And since then 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:32.560 they've been rebuilding their government and trying to get rid 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.880 of the corruption and the Russian influence. Setting aside what 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.040 people would like to have happened, what do people over there, 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.080 what do they think is going to happen longter they 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:46.680 think they're gonna win they're driving the Yeah, they're right, 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:51.119 they aren't it right? You know what I mean, it's unsustainable. 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:54.080 It's like it's this thing that I you know, I got. 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.199 You know, when you when your kids lie, it's like 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.840 the best thing that I've ever thought to tell my 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:02.359 kids when they lie is like it's okay, but think 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:04.920