October 24, 2023 • 39 mins
As the world’s attention is rightly drawn to the crisis unfolding in the Middle East, another devastating war rages on. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, Ukrainians have shown remarkable courage and determination in fighting to preserve their independence. But it’s come at a terrible cost, and victory is far from assured.
This past September at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), together with Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, Hillary announced the launch of a CGI Ukraine Action Network–a coalition of partners committed to supporting the people of Ukraine. Both of her guests today are partners in that coalition, and have been doing everything they can to support the people of Ukraine in their brave and necessary fight to defend their freedom.
Olga Rudneva shares with us her work as CEO of Superhumans Center, a modern medical center providing prosthetic limbs, rehabilitation, and other essential services to Ukrainian men, women, and children who have lost limbs in the war.
Actor and director Liev Schreiber talks about how and why he co-founded BlueCheck Ukraine, a collective of humanitarian crisis response experts, entrepreneurs, and filmmakers who work to identify, vet, and fast-track urgent financial support to Ukrainian NGOs and aid initiatives providing life-saving and humanitarian work on the front lines of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm Hillary Clinton, and this is you and me both.
During my time as Secretary of State, I encountered firsthand
the challenges of managing multiple crises across the globe. You know,
every conflict requires your attention, every opportunity requires your attention,
(00:22):
and it all happens at the same time. Success in
the job means being able to balance it all while
never losing sight of the bigger picture. And while the
world is rightly focused now on the horrific violence that
erupted in the Middle East because of Hamas's inhumane attack
(00:43):
on Israeli's men, women, children, babies, while that crisis is continuing,
we also have to stay focused on Russia's brutal and
barbaric war against Ukraine, which rages on. Ukrainians need our help,
you know. Back in September, I had the opportunity to
(01:06):
join with leaders, activists and philanthropists at the annual meeting
of the Clinton Global Initiative what we call CIGI in
New York. Together with First Lady Olena Zelenska, we announced
the launch of a CGI Ukraine Action Network that's a
coalition of partners committed to supporting the people of Ukraine.
(01:30):
Since its invasion of Ukraine in February of twenty twenty two.
Russia has violated all the rules of engagement, committed war
crimes and genocide. Thousands and thousands of Ukrainian civilians have
been injured and killed indiscriminately, and thousands of Ukrainian children
(01:51):
have been kidnapped. In the face of this violence and devastation,
people of goodwill all around the world are stepping up,
helping to supper sport the humanitarian crises on the ground.
I want to share with you my conversations with two
such people who are making an incredible difference. Both of
(02:11):
my guests today have been doing everything they can to
support the people of Ukraine in their brave and necessary
fight to defend their homeland, to defend their freedom, to
determine their own future, and both are members of our
CGI Ukraine Action Network through their respective organizations. Later, I'll
(02:34):
be talking with actor and director Liev Schreiber, who co
founded Blue Chech Ukraine, an organization that he will tell
us about. But first I want to introduce you to
Olga Rudneva. Since Russia first invaded Crimea back in twenty fourteen,
(02:54):
Olga has been working to support veterans, women and to
train paramedics. The following Russia's full scale invasion in twenty
twenty two, Olga and two partners quickly saw the need
for another vital service, providing prosthetic limbs along with rehabilitative
(03:15):
services to the hundreds of soldiers as well as civilians
who have lost their limbs in this terrible war, and
so they created the Superhuman's Center, a rehabilitation clinic that
does just that. As CEO, Olga brings her invaluable skills
as a leader and an entrepreneur. But you know, even
(03:36):
more impressive to me, as you'll hear, is the courage
and humanity she brings to this very difficult and emotionally
challenging work. I am honored to be speaking with her, So, Olga,
welcome to you and me both. And I had the
honor of seeing you at the Clinton Global Initiative in
(03:59):
September in New York City. Recently. Where am I talking
to you now?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I'm in Kiev and we just survived a very horrid
night of rocket attacks on Odessa, so it was a
lot of air as Syrians during the nighttime. But I'm
in Kiev for the next couple of days and then
back to Lviv to Superhuman Center.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I'm sorry that you and every other person in
Ukraine has to continue to suffer from this terrible war,
but there are so many Ukrainians who are doing everything
they know to do, and you're one of them. And
I want you to tell our listeners about the organization
that you and others have started called Superhumans. What is it? Olga?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
First of all, I want to say, please do not
feel sorry for us. We know what we are fighting for.
We are fighting for our freedom, independence and the right
to be a country. So please be proud of us,
and we need support. You know, we can win this war,
but we can't win it without external support. A year
(05:05):
ago we decided to look what we can do today
for tomorrow because we are doing at the beginning of
war with my partners, that humanitarian warehouse where we are
helping foreigners who collected humanitarian aid to bring this aid
to Ukraine and distribute that amongst those who needed. So
we thought, okay, what else can we do because we
(05:26):
couldn't sleep, we couldn't eat normally. The only thing that
you can do is work hards you know, to help
your country, and we realized that losing cleams and amputation
is going to be a very big problem. So Andrestevenitzer said,
let's do the prosthetic center, and we will do the
predeases for people who lot their limbs. We will do rebilitation,
(05:49):
and we will provide psychological support. So with this picture
in mind, we started building superhumans in Lviv, and we
built it over four and a half months during the
full scale invasion, and we opened our doors on April fifteenth.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Well, it's an extraordinary story, and I am in great
admiration of what you and others have done. You know,
I served in the United States Senate with Danny Ineway,
a Medal of Honor winner during World War Two who
lost his arm, And I remember having a long conversation
with him about that, and I'll never forget him saying,
(06:25):
you know, I could have not just lost an arm,
but lost my life even if I'd stayed alive. But
the people who took care of me, who gave me
the support, who taught me how to address myself and
how to do day to day activities, they gave my
life back to me.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You know, sixty percent of those people who get their
brutises never used them because they actually don't know how
to use Nobody taught them. And then we realized that,
I know it sounds weird, but we don't need lax
and we don't need arms. We need lax to come
somewhere and arms to grab something, to hold, something to
(07:04):
give a haalk to someone. So we need to give
the reason for these people to leave their apartments so
they will wear their prestiges. That was a point where
we added one more service to Superhuman Center, the service
of finding new roles for our patients, giving them not
only in new arms or lags, but giving them a
(07:25):
new life, bring them back to the economical system, to
the civil life and to their families.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
It's a big challenge you're facing. I mean, you do
have thousands of Ukrainian civilians, even children, as well as
your brave soldiers needing prosthetics, and it's important to underscore
that part of the reason you have so many injuries
is how absolutely evil the Russians have been in their
(07:52):
placement of bombs and minds. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Absolutely? There are two issues that Ukraine is facing. The
first one is mines. They are all over Ukraine forty
percent of Ukrainian territory is mine. And you know, we
often say that if the war over tomorrow, it'll take
us years to the mine. And also mines are very tricky.
You know, sometimes they look nice or they are are
(08:19):
hidden in children toys. In my own house, it was
in the Washington machine. Andre Stavnitzer had it at his
house at the kitchen. So they are targeted at civilians.
That's one issue. Another issue, Russians are targeting paramedics and
medics at the front lines. Medics are very often to
be killed first so they can't save lives, and medic
(08:42):
vocation course, they are targeted by Russian So that means
the person who was wounded, even with a minor injury,
they put turniquets very high and then it takes sometimes
ten hours by his or her comrades to take the
person out to the stabilization point. During these ten hours,
you just lose your hand up to the shelter and
(09:04):
that brings us multiple amputations. It brings us high amputation.
They're very expensive to deal with and they are very
difficult to you know, to teach this person to walk
or to operade within new hand. So that's two issues.
And it's it's a barbarian approach. Because every war has
some rules. This war doesn't have any rules. Russians breaking
(09:28):
the rules all the time. They don't care about civilians.
They target press when they see that it's media. Ah,
they target paramedics, and they don't care about children.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And that's the war. You know, we are surviving for
year and a half already.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's really important to me to stress that as terrible
as war is under any circumstance, which we all understand,
the attitude of the Russians led by Putin is genocidal.
I mean, he wants to wipe out Ukrainian people because
you've had the courage, the temerity even to stand up
(10:06):
and defend yourselves. And so nobody is safe. There's no
mercy shown, there's no rules, so violating every convention, the
Geneva Conventions on war, everything one can imagine. And it's
why I want Americans to realize that your war is
our war, Your fight is our fight. But you know, Olga,
you've set this up so quickly. How did you do it?
(10:27):
First of all, you were building it in the middle
of a war, and you were equipping it, and you
were recruiting personnel for it. How were you able to
get all that done in such a short period of time.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I should say, you know, huge thanks to American people.
You know, we have amazing donor Howard Buffett Foundation. Howard
was the first person who trusted in us, and we
told him we want to do that, and he took
the most difficult part, which is you know, building and
reconstruction and equipment. He said, okay, you do the work
and I'll cover expenses. And yeah, we did reconstruct that
(11:05):
in four and a half months. Equipped that, you know,
understanding that we need to act as fast as possible.
I remember Christmas Day when all construction workers said they're
not going to work because it's a holiday. So we said, okay,
we will bring you to the installation of bionic arm.
(11:26):
For construction workers, losing the arm is actually, you know,
the end of the world. So they saw the guy
who lost the arm and we were installing this bionic
arm and we said, listen, we have to install it
in the corridor literally, and they said, okay, wait, we understand.
And they all went to the construction site and they
all worked all holidays, including Christmas Day, because they realized
(11:49):
what we are doing and why we are doing and
the most important for whom we are doing that. So
that helped us. You know, this motivation and the fact
that everyone on the construction site knew what they do
and why they do. That helped us to be very quick.
And when we started hiring the team and we realized
that it's not enough just to build amazing center and
(12:10):
bring the best equipment.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
We don't have expertise in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So we started training especialists all over the world and
the world was very open. They said okay, some came
to Ukraine, some accepted us. So we trained the team
starting like from February and on April we were al
ready to opened our doors and we already at that
time had three hundred patients inline. Right now we have
(12:34):
eight hundred patients in line waiting for their prestiges.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And how many people have you treated since you've been.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Open since mid of April. We installed two hundred precises.
But it's important to say that we are dealing with
the most difficult cases. It's a lot of people who
got rejection from other centers because of very high imputations,
double triple and putations.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
We have a patient in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
He was told in Ukraine and abroad that he's probably
will never ever gonna walk. And I see him walking
on a daily basis. I mean he's absolutely I see
him planking. He's double amputy. Yeah, he's planking. I will
send the video. He is literally he's planking and he's
doing you know, his apps.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And I look at him. He is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
He's already going out on the street and every time
I ask him it's difficult, He's like, no, I'm fine,
I'm gonna walk. So he is an amazing inspiration for me.
So we take difficult cases. These patients are with us
for more than a month very often, and I wish
we could do more pertises.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
But who would look after difficult cases?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Who would look after cases where people had psychological problem?
Because we had several patients and they were feeling pain
all the time and we couldn't. You know, we had
this civilian lady, she was in a bus for her son.
Out of eight people, four were killed, so she survived.
We brought her to Germany at that time and she said,
(14:08):
I can't wear prestigos because it's I'm feeling pain because
of burns. We brought her to Kief and then psychologists
said that she has psychogenic pain. She thinks she is
in pain, but she is not. And the problem was
she's from her son. Her house was fully burnt out,
and she was afraid that. As soon as we installed
(14:29):
her proteases, we discharged her. She has to go back
home and there is no home, and her mind was
thinking that she is in pain. So we helped her
to find a job, We found her place to live.
She's wearing prestiss. She is fifty six. She is happy,
she reunited with the family. She's living in the western
part of Ukraine. You know that kind of support people
(14:51):
need here. Sometimes it's just to talk with the psychologist.
So lots of stories, lots of stories.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Taking a quick break, stay with us. You know, the
courage of the Ukrainian people has been tested time and
time again. How do you keep that energy? How do
you keep being resilient? You know, every one of us
(15:22):
as human beings, you know, we get exhausted, we get tired.
How do you keep going?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
The first thing again, we know what we are fighting for.
It's very important. We just know what we are fighting for.
I think this is the most important thing that you know,
we understand that we are fighting for our right to
speak our language, for our right to wake up in
our country, in our cities and our houses, and we
(15:48):
want to have the rights.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
To go on my done if we don't like our governments.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
You know, that's Ukrainians, that's democracy, that's free.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah, you know, for the Russians, I guess it's going
to be very big tragedy after the war. People don't
know what are they fighting for.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I agree with you that there is going to be
some kind of reckoning. I don't know what it is,
but there will be some reckoning inside Russia. So how
do you see the next year for superhumans? Are you
trying to get more funding, are you trying to build
satellite offices? Are you trying to recruit more people?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
First of all, we are launching one more service, which
is reconstructive surgery. We have people who literally lost their faces,
and losing your face is like closing care identity. So
one more service restoring faces, ability to breathe, ability to see,
ability to hear, and we want to scale up. We
are looking at five more regions. I'm not sure we're
(16:43):
going to do five more next year, but at least
two more because we need to provide services closer to
the places where our patients are. Ukraine is a very
big country. We are at the western part of Ukraine
at the most safe place, but we want to go
closer to the front lines to open one more two
more superhumans in twenty twenty four, one more service feeding
(17:06):
with the prestigious more people. Right now, we can do
fifty patients. It's one million dollars only in prosthetic components.
It's very expensive things, but we need to do two
hundred three hundred per months because the need is very big.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, part of the reason I wanted to talk with
you is that I have a small understanding because along
with the late Senator John McCain, I helped to raise
money for the Intrepid Center that does exactly what you're
talking about in our country, and it was established to
take care of our returning soldiers who had been injured
in Iraq at Afghanistan. So I have a special caring
(17:46):
for what you're doing because I know what a difference
it can make as we get close to closing oga.
What gives you hope for the future of your country.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
You know, maybe we are over evaluating, you know, the
role of Ukraine. But we see right now Ukraine as
a country that fights the world evolved, which is Russia.
If Russia will invade Ukraine, it can do to anyone
in this world. So that gives us hope that we
have a special mission, you know, to fight for the
(18:18):
whole world. And I think that it's probably it helps,
you know, sometimes to feel that you are a hero. Also,
these people that I see every day. There's people that
walk in in a wheelchair and three days later they
walk to me and they hug me. They give me
hope every time when I tell them, I'm sorry that
(18:38):
it happened to you, and they tell me, don't be sorry.
I'm very proud of losing my legs because it's my
input in the victory of Ukraine. When I hear that,
that gives me hope. What else gives me hope? People
are delivering kids in this country, you know. I was
really surprised when I heard about my first friend who
was pregnant, and I was like, oh my god, people
(19:00):
still want to have kids, and she's like, of course,
life's go on. When I go on the streets, I
see food delivery. It gives me hope. You know, even
during air Syrians there is someone cycling, you know, delivering
the food because they have to be on time. That
gives me hope, you know. And kids go to school,
That gives me hope. You know, women put on makeup,
(19:21):
go to work, you know, and providing for their children
when men are at the war. So we didn't give up,
and that's enough hope to keep moving. When you see
that we are still alive, it gives you energy to
keep living, you know. I think that's how it works.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I think that's how it works. And it is an
existential struggle between good and evil. And when the history
of this era is written and the final victory is one,
the world will owe Ukraine and the Ukrainian people a
big debt. Augus, thank you so much. I'm going to
give you the last word. Anything else you'd like to
(19:58):
tell our listeners.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Please stand with Ukraine. We proved that we are brave,
but we need support of the world to keep going.
And we will definitely win this war. And one day
we're going to celebrate the victory the whole world together
with Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Well, I look forward when we can get it arranged
to come to Ukraine and visit Superhumans and so many
of the other wonderful people we're working with at the
Clint Global Initiative who understand how important it is that
we stand with you. Thank you so much, Olga, and
keep doing that great work.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Thank you very much. Waiting for you at Superhumans.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
It'll be a great present and surprise for our patients
and our doctors.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
To find out more about Superhumans and to donate to
support their essential work on the ground in Ukraine. Go
to superhumans dot com. Now my next guest, I think
it's fair to say is is more of a household name.
Maybe you first saw him on the big screen in
(21:05):
the Scream trilogy if you're into horror films. Leev Schreiber
also wrote and directed the film Everything Is Illuminated, which
he filmed on location in Ukraine. He's also done a
lot of stage work, Shakespeare, the Classics, you name it.
But I'm talking to him today because of the remarkable
way he has stepped out onto the world stage to
(21:29):
lend a hand to Ukrainians. Leev is the co founder
and major cheerleader for Bluezech Ukraine, an organization that identifies
vets and fasttracks urgent financial support to Ukrainian groups providing
critical humanitarian aid on the front lines. Lee have also
(21:51):
joined us at CGI in September, and I'm really happy
to be able to speak to him again.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Hello Secretary Glinton.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Hello, Hello, Oh, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I'm great. We've resolved all of the technical issues.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's always a good sign.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I was really good at this stuff until I hit
about forty and then for some reason it just stopped.
And now I have to find a young person, which
is a clear sign.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's called evolution. It's called evolution, right, Well, thank you
so much for joining us on the podcast. I'm not
only a fan, which I will confess before we start
of your body of work, but I am a bigger
fan because of you, know the very smart way that
you are working to help Ukraine in its struggle against
(22:41):
the barbaric invasion by Russia. I would love for you
to tell our listeners what is Blue Check Ukraine, How
did you get involved, and what makes it different from
other aid organizations.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Well, the headline answer is that Blue Check is an
effort to fast track financial support primarily to local NGOs
in Ukraine. A humanitarian watchdog group out of the UK
called Humanitarian Outcomes, published two reports, one last June that
reported that of the two point six billion that had
(23:16):
been donated to Ukraine, only six million of that had
made it to the actual local NGOs on the ground,
who arguably are really doing most of the work. They
published a new one in May which said that one
percent of the donations were going to these local ENGOs
and so that they were recommending really figuring out ways
(23:37):
to localize aid because it's these local communities who are
most knowledgeable about what the needs are, how to fulfill them,
the language, the intelligence, the resources, the personnel, and so
Blue Check is really just a group of friends trying
to get the message through to people that the Ukrainians
are really the best equipped people to help themselves. Need
(24:00):
to do is support them, is really to continue to
support them. And so I got into it because a
friend a friend called me and I'd made a film
about Ukraine, and so they thought I would know something
about Ukraine, which I really don't. I just made a
film and they said how can we help? And I
really didn't know where to send them. So I just
thought the normal avenues like Red Cross and all of
(24:22):
these international aid organizations who are all doing great work.
The problem is that in a situation like a war,
it's very acute and you have to move very very quickly,
and a lot of these larger international aid groups, because
of their overhead, because of their liability, because they are
not always able to work in country, are a little
(24:43):
slower to react. And we've got a situation, as you
well know, that is very acute and we need to
respond as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know, there's so many important areas of need right
now in Ukraine that people can feel overwhelmed. And you
I've been there, talk a little bit about what you've
actually seen on the ground, because the resilience, the smarts
of the Ukrainian people who are trying to deliver this
aid is really impressive.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
They're extraordinary, they really are. We have twenty two partners
right now. For the most part, we were looking for
NGOs that are in Ukraine, but we're also finding people
who have volunteered their services, extraordinary Americans. There's a guy
named Ryan Hendrickson who I am just so impressed by,
who is a retired Special Forces Green Beret Army guy
(25:36):
who was injured by a landmine himself and now he
makes these humanitarian missions to Ukraine to demine these villages,
which is an extraordinary service to them because obviously he's
really knowledgeable in this from given his experience and background.
There's another group called Project Victory, which is a group
of US veterans who have gone over there to basically
(25:57):
do everything. They initially came to teach stop bleeding techniques
and they've gone on to do evacuations, shelter reinforcements. When
the Kokova Dam was destroyed by the Russians, they were
our first contacts on the ground who told us that
we needed to get water into the populations there. And
(26:18):
because these guys our veterans, they know how to handle
themselves in frontline situations. You know, we pretty much have
a group in every oblast in the country with a
concentration on vulnerable populations, particularly elderly people, women and children,
injured civilians. We have a group called Stirrenki, which is
(26:39):
support for the elderly, which is actually quite a big
issue in terms of the work we do on the
front lines, because they're the ones who don't leave.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Explain that you talked about that at CGI, and I
think a lot of people were surprised because they might
have thought, oh, well, first get the elderly out, but
the elderly won't leave.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
They don't want to leave. It's their land and they're there,
as you could understand. Actually, you know, these people have
built their farms and their homes on these lands, and
it's their land, and in their minds they're not giving
it up. And as you mentioned, they're very strong, resilient,
and I would add.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Tough people, stubborn, maybe stubborn a little bit.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
They're not afraid of the Russians. And so unfortunately, when
you have these missile attacks, it's very often that you
see elderly people becoming displaced or losing their homes or
getting injured. So Sirrenki is a group that exclusively works
to service them, to evacuate them, to bring unfortunately because
most of them won't evacuate, to bring them warming kits,
to bring them food, to reinforce their homes, shelters, things
(27:38):
like that. And then of course you have the non
material support, you know, like gender specific aid groups like
the Women's Center, because as you probably know, the men
who are of fighting age are all conscripted into military service,
so that leaves a lot of these single moms out there,
and the Women's Center was an extraordinary group that was
(28:00):
team of lawyers that was really working for gender equality
before the war, and after the war switched over realized
that they needed to provide evacuation services, women's health services, counseling,
and things like that for mothers and children. So there's
a lot. They're doing a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
They are doing a lot, and you know, when you
hear the stories of what they're up against, it just
enrages me. That it does to you too, that here
we are twenty twenty three and we have a regime
led by Vladimir Putin that has committed every crime against humanity,
(28:35):
every war crime. And I think there's a real need
for Americans, all of us, to recognize their fight is
our fight. But what got you so motivated to help?
Because you've gone pretty far in making the case as
to why it their fight is our fight.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
You know, I've very moved and driven in many ways
by my grandfather's generation, that is to say, the generation
of Americans who fought for democracy in World War Two. Primarily,
I was also very impressed by the ones who fought
in the Spanish American Civil war without an organized military
to push back against fascism, and it feels like as
(29:20):
I watched this war unfold on television with my children
on the couch, and I saw these sort of normal
looking middle aged men saying goodbye to their wives and
children going off to fight a war in which I'm
sure you and I both thought they were vastly outnumbered
and out gunned, and it felt they're not coming back.
(29:40):
This is really horrible. And as I thought about it,
what they're fighting for, sovereignty, freedom, the right to raise
their children the way they want to raise them, to
speak the language that they want to speak. Those are
American values, and why aren't we in this? It has
so little to do with me having some Ukrainian ancestry,
(30:01):
and everything to do with what I believe American values
are and what our place is in the geopolitical world,
of what we provide, what we provide to our own citizens,
and the opportunity that we present to those who are persecuted.
And it just felt, you know, after having spent the
(30:23):
past twenty some odd years of my life being very
well rewarded by my career and my life here, that
it was the least I could do to respond to something,
and the minute that my celebrity, which had really done
nothing but break the misery to this point, and my children.
It makes raising children incredibly difficult, as you.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Probably, Yeah, I can relate to.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
That extraordinary job. Yeah, it just it suddenly was paying
back in dividends. Like I was able to accomplish things.
I was able to speak to people like you. I
was able to get the attention of the media, and
I was able to point focus where I felt focus
should be pointed. And that was an incredibly good feeling.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
You know, it sounds very much like it was a
combination of your head and your heart. I mean, you
really brought it all together in this. And you've actually
been to Ukraine, most of our listeners, haven't. I think
you've made a film inside Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Well, I've made a few. Now. Initially, what I was
trying to do was to sort of film the situation
on the ground in the hopes that I would bring
those films back and they would raise money. Yes, that's
obviously what we're trying to do, is we're trying to
raise money to fund these organizations. And then once I
got to meet President Lensky and had a couple of
interviews and talks with him, we decided together that making
(31:46):
a documentary would be useful. So I sat down with
the president for a series of interviews, and Andre Singer,
who made a really wonderful portrait of Korbache'v, worked with
me on the film.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Also has that come out yet?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
No, it hasn't. We've just finished.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Thank you for finishing it. I mean, it's really I
think we should flood the zone. There needs to be
as many documentaries, you know, fictional narratives that are kind
of docu dramas.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
It's impossible for people to tell unless they've seen it,
unless they see it and they feel it. And that's
the other thing is I think that we are essentially
emotional creatures. And you're right to say I came in
with my head in my heart. I would say mostly
my heart, because my head is getting thicker at this
point in my life.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
But well, you've taken a lot of blows to it
in your film career.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
When you feel something, it's true, you know, you know
it exists in your bones. And that thing about seeing
these stories, I'm really I can't begin to say how
impressed I am by the Ukrainian people, and also how
concerned I am that they're getting tired and that we
need to continue to support them.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
We'll be right back. You know, when you talk about
what you're doing and the fact that you met President Zelenski,
describe for our listeners what you thought of him. This
(33:22):
Youngish man who you know somewhat improbably got elected president
in the first place, then gets thrust into wartime leadership.
And I see you grinning on the video.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Well, no one was expecting President Zelenski's response. No one
was expecting that level of courage. I grinned because we
shared a profession. And you know people say such awful
things about actors, Well here's one, here's one who proved
his metal. But no one was expecting that level of courage, frankly,
(33:57):
and it's exactly what the world. It's not just what
Ukraine need, it's what the world needed. Those principles and
that dignity. That little recording that he made on his
phone after the first night, smiling with the other generals,
saying yatut moitut at these words in Ukrainians you probably know,
mean we are here. I'm here, the President's here, We're
(34:20):
not going anywhere, and the part that resonated for me. Moitut,
we're here, We're here together. That's what matters, that we
can face this down, we can stand down bullies. He's
not a tall guy, you know. Most people know him
as one of the funniest actors to ever come out
of the entertainment industry in Ukraine, and super talented, super intelligent,
(34:43):
but not Henry the Fifth. And here he had the intelligence,
he had the dignity, he had the humanity to make
the right choice. He knew what the right choice was,
that some things are worth putting your life on the
line for. And for me that resonated so deeply with
my American values and the patriots in our history and
(35:06):
our life who made our lives possible. I owe them
a debt, you know, and I owe people like him
a debt. And so I was incredibly honored to get
to meet him. And Madame Zelenska, as you know, as
well as also extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
In her own she really is too. You mentioned that
you were watching Ukraine coverage with your children. I know
you've just had a new baby, so I assume it's
your two older children, right, Yes, that sounded so important
to me that you were watching with your children and
talking to them about what they were seeing. What was
(35:39):
that experience likelyav.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I have to admit that it was a selfish one
that I was looking at these people serving their country
and I was thinking what have I done as I
sat there with my kids, and how could I explain
our lives in a way that made sense to them?
But I also I think it was important to expose
(36:02):
them to the situation. They were old enough, in my opinion,
Guy was thirteen and Sasha was fifteen to understand it,
or at least to ask questions and to understand who
we are and by that I don't mean Ukrainian. By that,
I mean Americans and where we fit into something like this,
(36:23):
and what we do when this kind of barbarism. You know,
the military strategy that he's employing that attacks not just
civilian infrastructure but medical infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
That's right, hospitals.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Intentionally, Which is why we really, really really need to
keep our eye on Ukraine and to continue to help
our brothers and sisters who are fighting for those values.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Amen, Well, I can't thank you enough for stepping up
and stepping into this important matter and using your reach
to try to keep us all focused on what's really important.
Thank you so very.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Much, Thank you, Madam Secretary.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
To learn more about the work Blue Check Ukraine is doing,
or to make a donation that they can get directly
into the hands of people on the ground in Ukraine
doing essential work, go to blue Check dot in. I
know that the sheer number of critical hotspots simmering across
our globe right now can be overwhelming, and yes it
(37:32):
is hard to follow it all, to make sense of
it all, but we cannot look away and we cannot
turn inward. The fight for Ukraine's freedom is far from over,
and it's vital that we not lose focus on the
essential need to secure peace and safety for all people.
So take care, hold your loved ones close, and let's
(37:56):
do everything we can to keep fighting for peace, democracy
and security, you and me both. Is brought to you
by iHeart Podcasts. We're produced by Julie Subren, Kathleen Russo
(38:20):
and Rob Russo, with help from Huma Abadeen, Oscar Flores,
Lindsey Hoffman, Sarah Horowitz, Laura Olin, Lona Valmoorro and the
Lily Weber. Our engineer is Zach McNeice and the original
music is by Forrest Gray. If you like you and
(38:40):
me both, tell someone else about it. And if you're
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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening,
and I'll see you next week
I'm Hillary Clinton, and this is you and me both.
During my time as Secretary of State, I encountered firsthand
the challenges of managing multiple crises across the globe. You know,
every conflict requires your attention, every opportunity requires your attention,
(00:22):
and it all happens at the same time. Success in
the job means being able to balance it all while
never losing sight of the bigger picture. And while the
world is rightly focused now on the horrific violence that
erupted in the Middle East because of Hamas's inhumane attack
(00:43):
on Israeli's men, women, children, babies, while that crisis is continuing,
we also have to stay focused on Russia's brutal and
barbaric war against Ukraine, which rages on. Ukrainians need our help,
you know. Back in September, I had the opportunity to
(01:06):
join with leaders, activists and philanthropists at the annual meeting
of the Clinton Global Initiative what we call CIGI in
New York. Together with First Lady Olena Zelenska, we announced
the launch of a CGI Ukraine Action Network that's a
coalition of partners committed to supporting the people of Ukraine.
(01:30):
Since its invasion of Ukraine in February of twenty twenty two.
Russia has violated all the rules of engagement, committed war
crimes and genocide. Thousands and thousands of Ukrainian civilians have
been injured and killed indiscriminately, and thousands of Ukrainian children
(01:51):
have been kidnapped. In the face of this violence and devastation,
people of goodwill all around the world are stepping up,
helping to supper sport the humanitarian crises on the ground.
I want to share with you my conversations with two
such people who are making an incredible difference. Both of
(02:11):
my guests today have been doing everything they can to
support the people of Ukraine in their brave and necessary
fight to defend their homeland, to defend their freedom, to
determine their own future, and both are members of our
CGI Ukraine Action Network through their respective organizations. Later, I'll
(02:34):
be talking with actor and director Liev Schreiber, who co
founded Blue Chech Ukraine, an organization that he will tell
us about. But first I want to introduce you to
Olga Rudneva. Since Russia first invaded Crimea back in twenty fourteen,
(02:54):
Olga has been working to support veterans, women and to
train paramedics. The following Russia's full scale invasion in twenty
twenty two, Olga and two partners quickly saw the need
for another vital service, providing prosthetic limbs along with rehabilitative
(03:15):
services to the hundreds of soldiers as well as civilians
who have lost their limbs in this terrible war, and
so they created the Superhuman's Center, a rehabilitation clinic that
does just that. As CEO, Olga brings her invaluable skills
as a leader and an entrepreneur. But you know, even
(03:36):
more impressive to me, as you'll hear, is the courage
and humanity she brings to this very difficult and emotionally
challenging work. I am honored to be speaking with her, So, Olga,
welcome to you and me both. And I had the
honor of seeing you at the Clinton Global Initiative in
(03:59):
September in New York City. Recently. Where am I talking
to you now?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I'm in Kiev and we just survived a very horrid
night of rocket attacks on Odessa, so it was a
lot of air as Syrians during the nighttime. But I'm
in Kiev for the next couple of days and then
back to Lviv to Superhuman Center.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Well, I'm sorry that you and every other person in
Ukraine has to continue to suffer from this terrible war,
but there are so many Ukrainians who are doing everything
they know to do, and you're one of them. And
I want you to tell our listeners about the organization
that you and others have started called Superhumans. What is it? Olga?
Speaker 3 (04:45):
First of all, I want to say, please do not
feel sorry for us. We know what we are fighting for.
We are fighting for our freedom, independence and the right
to be a country. So please be proud of us,
and we need support. You know, we can win this war,
but we can't win it without external support. A year
(05:05):
ago we decided to look what we can do today
for tomorrow because we are doing at the beginning of
war with my partners, that humanitarian warehouse where we are
helping foreigners who collected humanitarian aid to bring this aid
to Ukraine and distribute that amongst those who needed. So
we thought, okay, what else can we do because we
(05:26):
couldn't sleep, we couldn't eat normally. The only thing that
you can do is work hards you know, to help
your country, and we realized that losing cleams and amputation
is going to be a very big problem. So Andrestevenitzer said,
let's do the prosthetic center, and we will do the
predeases for people who lot their limbs. We will do rebilitation,
(05:49):
and we will provide psychological support. So with this picture
in mind, we started building superhumans in Lviv, and we
built it over four and a half months during the
full scale invasion, and we opened our doors on April fifteenth.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Well, it's an extraordinary story, and I am in great
admiration of what you and others have done. You know,
I served in the United States Senate with Danny Ineway,
a Medal of Honor winner during World War Two who
lost his arm, And I remember having a long conversation
with him about that, and I'll never forget him saying,
(06:25):
you know, I could have not just lost an arm,
but lost my life even if I'd stayed alive. But
the people who took care of me, who gave me
the support, who taught me how to address myself and
how to do day to day activities, they gave my
life back to me.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You know, sixty percent of those people who get their
brutises never used them because they actually don't know how
to use Nobody taught them. And then we realized that,
I know it sounds weird, but we don't need lax
and we don't need arms. We need lax to come
somewhere and arms to grab something, to hold, something to
(07:04):
give a haalk to someone. So we need to give
the reason for these people to leave their apartments so
they will wear their prestiges. That was a point where
we added one more service to Superhuman Center, the service
of finding new roles for our patients, giving them not
only in new arms or lags, but giving them a
(07:25):
new life, bring them back to the economical system, to
the civil life and to their families.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
It's a big challenge you're facing. I mean, you do
have thousands of Ukrainian civilians, even children, as well as
your brave soldiers needing prosthetics, and it's important to underscore
that part of the reason you have so many injuries
is how absolutely evil the Russians have been in their
(07:52):
placement of bombs and minds. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Absolutely? There are two issues that Ukraine is facing. The
first one is mines. They are all over Ukraine forty
percent of Ukrainian territory is mine. And you know, we
often say that if the war over tomorrow, it'll take
us years to the mine. And also mines are very tricky.
You know, sometimes they look nice or they are are
(08:19):
hidden in children toys. In my own house, it was
in the Washington machine. Andre Stavnitzer had it at his
house at the kitchen. So they are targeted at civilians.
That's one issue. Another issue, Russians are targeting paramedics and
medics at the front lines. Medics are very often to
be killed first so they can't save lives, and medic
(08:42):
vocation course, they are targeted by Russian So that means
the person who was wounded, even with a minor injury,
they put turniquets very high and then it takes sometimes
ten hours by his or her comrades to take the
person out to the stabilization point. During these ten hours,
you just lose your hand up to the shelter and
(09:04):
that brings us multiple amputations. It brings us high amputation.
They're very expensive to deal with and they are very
difficult to you know, to teach this person to walk
or to operade within new hand. So that's two issues.
And it's it's a barbarian approach. Because every war has
some rules. This war doesn't have any rules. Russians breaking
(09:28):
the rules all the time. They don't care about civilians.
They target press when they see that it's media. Ah,
they target paramedics, and they don't care about children.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And that's the war. You know, we are surviving for
year and a half already.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It's really important to me to stress that as terrible
as war is under any circumstance, which we all understand,
the attitude of the Russians led by Putin is genocidal.
I mean, he wants to wipe out Ukrainian people because
you've had the courage, the temerity even to stand up
(10:06):
and defend yourselves. And so nobody is safe. There's no
mercy shown, there's no rules, so violating every convention, the
Geneva Conventions on war, everything one can imagine. And it's
why I want Americans to realize that your war is
our war, Your fight is our fight. But you know, Olga,
you've set this up so quickly. How did you do it?
(10:27):
First of all, you were building it in the middle
of a war, and you were equipping it, and you
were recruiting personnel for it. How were you able to
get all that done in such a short period of time.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
I should say, you know, huge thanks to American people.
You know, we have amazing donor Howard Buffett Foundation. Howard
was the first person who trusted in us, and we
told him we want to do that, and he took
the most difficult part, which is you know, building and
reconstruction and equipment. He said, okay, you do the work
and I'll cover expenses. And yeah, we did reconstruct that
(11:05):
in four and a half months. Equipped that, you know,
understanding that we need to act as fast as possible.
I remember Christmas Day when all construction workers said they're
not going to work because it's a holiday. So we said, okay,
we will bring you to the installation of bionic arm.
(11:26):
For construction workers, losing the arm is actually, you know,
the end of the world. So they saw the guy
who lost the arm and we were installing this bionic
arm and we said, listen, we have to install it
in the corridor literally, and they said, okay, wait, we understand.
And they all went to the construction site and they
all worked all holidays, including Christmas Day, because they realized
(11:49):
what we are doing and why we are doing and
the most important for whom we are doing that. So
that helped us. You know, this motivation and the fact
that everyone on the construction site knew what they do
and why they do. That helped us to be very quick.
And when we started hiring the team and we realized
that it's not enough just to build amazing center and
(12:10):
bring the best equipment.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
We don't have expertise in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
So we started training especialists all over the world and
the world was very open. They said okay, some came
to Ukraine, some accepted us. So we trained the team
starting like from February and on April we were al
ready to opened our doors and we already at that
time had three hundred patients inline. Right now we have
(12:34):
eight hundred patients in line waiting for their prestiges.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And how many people have you treated since you've been.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Open since mid of April. We installed two hundred precises.
But it's important to say that we are dealing with
the most difficult cases. It's a lot of people who
got rejection from other centers because of very high imputations,
double triple and putations.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
We have a patient in Ukraine.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
He was told in Ukraine and abroad that he's probably
will never ever gonna walk. And I see him walking
on a daily basis. I mean he's absolutely I see
him planking. He's double amputy. Yeah, he's planking. I will
send the video. He is literally he's planking and he's
doing you know, his apps.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And I look at him. He is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
He's already going out on the street and every time
I ask him it's difficult, He's like, no, I'm fine,
I'm gonna walk. So he is an amazing inspiration for me.
So we take difficult cases. These patients are with us
for more than a month very often, and I wish
we could do more pertises.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
But who would look after difficult cases?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Who would look after cases where people had psychological problem?
Because we had several patients and they were feeling pain
all the time and we couldn't. You know, we had
this civilian lady, she was in a bus for her son.
Out of eight people, four were killed, so she survived.
We brought her to Germany at that time and she said,
(14:08):
I can't wear prestigos because it's I'm feeling pain because
of burns. We brought her to Kief and then psychologists
said that she has psychogenic pain. She thinks she is
in pain, but she is not. And the problem was
she's from her son. Her house was fully burnt out,
and she was afraid that. As soon as we installed
(14:29):
her proteases, we discharged her. She has to go back
home and there is no home, and her mind was
thinking that she is in pain. So we helped her
to find a job, We found her place to live.
She's wearing prestiss. She is fifty six. She is happy,
she reunited with the family. She's living in the western
part of Ukraine. You know that kind of support people
(14:51):
need here. Sometimes it's just to talk with the psychologist.
So lots of stories, lots of stories.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Taking a quick break, stay with us. You know, the
courage of the Ukrainian people has been tested time and
time again. How do you keep that energy? How do
you keep being resilient? You know, every one of us
(15:22):
as human beings, you know, we get exhausted, we get tired.
How do you keep going?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
The first thing again, we know what we are fighting for.
It's very important. We just know what we are fighting for.
I think this is the most important thing that you know,
we understand that we are fighting for our right to
speak our language, for our right to wake up in
our country, in our cities and our houses, and we
(15:48):
want to have the rights.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
To go on my done if we don't like our governments.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
You know, that's Ukrainians, that's democracy, that's free.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah, you know, for the Russians, I guess it's going
to be very big tragedy after the war. People don't
know what are they fighting for.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I agree with you that there is going to be
some kind of reckoning. I don't know what it is,
but there will be some reckoning inside Russia. So how
do you see the next year for superhumans? Are you
trying to get more funding, are you trying to build
satellite offices? Are you trying to recruit more people?
Speaker 3 (16:21):
First of all, we are launching one more service, which
is reconstructive surgery. We have people who literally lost their faces,
and losing your face is like closing care identity. So
one more service restoring faces, ability to breathe, ability to see,
ability to hear, and we want to scale up. We
are looking at five more regions. I'm not sure we're
(16:43):
going to do five more next year, but at least
two more because we need to provide services closer to
the places where our patients are. Ukraine is a very
big country. We are at the western part of Ukraine
at the most safe place, but we want to go
closer to the front lines to open one more two
more superhumans in twenty twenty four, one more service feeding
(17:06):
with the prestigious more people. Right now, we can do
fifty patients. It's one million dollars only in prosthetic components.
It's very expensive things, but we need to do two
hundred three hundred per months because the need is very big.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, part of the reason I wanted to talk with
you is that I have a small understanding because along
with the late Senator John McCain, I helped to raise
money for the Intrepid Center that does exactly what you're
talking about in our country, and it was established to
take care of our returning soldiers who had been injured
in Iraq at Afghanistan. So I have a special caring
(17:46):
for what you're doing because I know what a difference
it can make as we get close to closing oga.
What gives you hope for the future of your country.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
You know, maybe we are over evaluating, you know, the
role of Ukraine. But we see right now Ukraine as
a country that fights the world evolved, which is Russia.
If Russia will invade Ukraine, it can do to anyone
in this world. So that gives us hope that we
have a special mission, you know, to fight for the
(18:18):
whole world. And I think that it's probably it helps,
you know, sometimes to feel that you are a hero. Also,
these people that I see every day. There's people that
walk in in a wheelchair and three days later they
walk to me and they hug me. They give me
hope every time when I tell them, I'm sorry that
(18:38):
it happened to you, and they tell me, don't be sorry.
I'm very proud of losing my legs because it's my
input in the victory of Ukraine. When I hear that,
that gives me hope. What else gives me hope? People
are delivering kids in this country, you know. I was
really surprised when I heard about my first friend who
was pregnant, and I was like, oh my god, people
(19:00):
still want to have kids, and she's like, of course,
life's go on. When I go on the streets, I
see food delivery. It gives me hope. You know, even
during air Syrians there is someone cycling, you know, delivering
the food because they have to be on time. That
gives me hope, you know. And kids go to school,
That gives me hope. You know, women put on makeup,
(19:21):
go to work, you know, and providing for their children
when men are at the war. So we didn't give up,
and that's enough hope to keep moving. When you see
that we are still alive, it gives you energy to
keep living, you know. I think that's how it works.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I think that's how it works. And it is an
existential struggle between good and evil. And when the history
of this era is written and the final victory is one,
the world will owe Ukraine and the Ukrainian people a
big debt. Augus, thank you so much. I'm going to
give you the last word. Anything else you'd like to
(19:58):
tell our listeners.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Please stand with Ukraine. We proved that we are brave,
but we need support of the world to keep going.
And we will definitely win this war. And one day
we're going to celebrate the victory the whole world together
with Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Well, I look forward when we can get it arranged
to come to Ukraine and visit Superhumans and so many
of the other wonderful people we're working with at the
Clint Global Initiative who understand how important it is that
we stand with you. Thank you so much, Olga, and
keep doing that great work.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Thank you very much. Waiting for you at Superhumans.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
It'll be a great present and surprise for our patients
and our doctors.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
To find out more about Superhumans and to donate to
support their essential work on the ground in Ukraine. Go
to superhumans dot com. Now my next guest, I think
it's fair to say is is more of a household name.
Maybe you first saw him on the big screen in
(21:05):
the Scream trilogy if you're into horror films. Leev Schreiber
also wrote and directed the film Everything Is Illuminated, which
he filmed on location in Ukraine. He's also done a
lot of stage work, Shakespeare, the Classics, you name it.
But I'm talking to him today because of the remarkable
way he has stepped out onto the world stage to
(21:29):
lend a hand to Ukrainians. Leev is the co founder
and major cheerleader for Bluezech Ukraine, an organization that identifies
vets and fasttracks urgent financial support to Ukrainian groups providing
critical humanitarian aid on the front lines. Lee have also
(21:51):
joined us at CGI in September, and I'm really happy
to be able to speak to him again.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Hello Secretary Glinton.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Hello, Hello, Oh, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4 (22:02):
I'm great. We've resolved all of the technical issues.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
That's always a good sign.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I was really good at this stuff until I hit
about forty and then for some reason it just stopped.
And now I have to find a young person, which
is a clear sign.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
That's called evolution. It's called evolution, right, Well, thank you
so much for joining us on the podcast. I'm not
only a fan, which I will confess before we start
of your body of work, but I am a bigger
fan because of you, know the very smart way that
you are working to help Ukraine in its struggle against
(22:41):
the barbaric invasion by Russia. I would love for you
to tell our listeners what is Blue Check Ukraine, How
did you get involved, and what makes it different from
other aid organizations.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Well, the headline answer is that Blue Check is an
effort to fast track financial support primarily to local NGOs
in Ukraine. A humanitarian watchdog group out of the UK
called Humanitarian Outcomes, published two reports, one last June that
reported that of the two point six billion that had
(23:16):
been donated to Ukraine, only six million of that had
made it to the actual local NGOs on the ground,
who arguably are really doing most of the work. They
published a new one in May which said that one
percent of the donations were going to these local ENGOs
and so that they were recommending really figuring out ways
(23:37):
to localize aid because it's these local communities who are
most knowledgeable about what the needs are, how to fulfill them,
the language, the intelligence, the resources, the personnel, and so
Blue Check is really just a group of friends trying
to get the message through to people that the Ukrainians
are really the best equipped people to help themselves. Need
(24:00):
to do is support them, is really to continue to
support them. And so I got into it because a
friend a friend called me and I'd made a film
about Ukraine, and so they thought I would know something
about Ukraine, which I really don't. I just made a
film and they said how can we help? And I
really didn't know where to send them. So I just
thought the normal avenues like Red Cross and all of
(24:22):
these international aid organizations who are all doing great work.
The problem is that in a situation like a war,
it's very acute and you have to move very very quickly,
and a lot of these larger international aid groups, because
of their overhead, because of their liability, because they are
not always able to work in country, are a little
(24:43):
slower to react. And we've got a situation, as you
well know, that is very acute and we need to
respond as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
You know, there's so many important areas of need right
now in Ukraine that people can feel overwhelmed. And you
I've been there, talk a little bit about what you've
actually seen on the ground, because the resilience, the smarts
of the Ukrainian people who are trying to deliver this
aid is really impressive.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
They're extraordinary, they really are. We have twenty two partners
right now. For the most part, we were looking for
NGOs that are in Ukraine, but we're also finding people
who have volunteered their services, extraordinary Americans. There's a guy
named Ryan Hendrickson who I am just so impressed by,
who is a retired Special Forces Green Beret Army guy
(25:36):
who was injured by a landmine himself and now he
makes these humanitarian missions to Ukraine to demine these villages,
which is an extraordinary service to them because obviously he's
really knowledgeable in this from given his experience and background.
There's another group called Project Victory, which is a group
of US veterans who have gone over there to basically
(25:57):
do everything. They initially came to teach stop bleeding techniques
and they've gone on to do evacuations, shelter reinforcements. When
the Kokova Dam was destroyed by the Russians, they were
our first contacts on the ground who told us that
we needed to get water into the populations there. And
(26:18):
because these guys our veterans, they know how to handle
themselves in frontline situations. You know, we pretty much have
a group in every oblast in the country with a
concentration on vulnerable populations, particularly elderly people, women and children,
injured civilians. We have a group called Stirrenki, which is
(26:39):
support for the elderly, which is actually quite a big
issue in terms of the work we do on the
front lines, because they're the ones who don't leave.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Explain that you talked about that at CGI, and I
think a lot of people were surprised because they might
have thought, oh, well, first get the elderly out, but
the elderly won't leave.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
They don't want to leave. It's their land and they're there,
as you could understand. Actually, you know, these people have
built their farms and their homes on these lands, and
it's their land, and in their minds they're not giving
it up. And as you mentioned, they're very strong, resilient,
and I would add.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Tough people, stubborn, maybe stubborn a little bit.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
They're not afraid of the Russians. And so unfortunately, when
you have these missile attacks, it's very often that you
see elderly people becoming displaced or losing their homes or
getting injured. So Sirrenki is a group that exclusively works
to service them, to evacuate them, to bring unfortunately because
most of them won't evacuate, to bring them warming kits,
to bring them food, to reinforce their homes, shelters, things
(27:38):
like that. And then of course you have the non
material support, you know, like gender specific aid groups like
the Women's Center, because as you probably know, the men
who are of fighting age are all conscripted into military service,
so that leaves a lot of these single moms out there,
and the Women's Center was an extraordinary group that was
(28:00):
team of lawyers that was really working for gender equality
before the war, and after the war switched over realized
that they needed to provide evacuation services, women's health services, counseling,
and things like that for mothers and children. So there's
a lot. They're doing a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
They are doing a lot, and you know, when you
hear the stories of what they're up against, it just
enrages me. That it does to you too, that here
we are twenty twenty three and we have a regime
led by Vladimir Putin that has committed every crime against humanity,
(28:35):
every war crime. And I think there's a real need
for Americans, all of us, to recognize their fight is
our fight. But what got you so motivated to help?
Because you've gone pretty far in making the case as
to why it their fight is our fight.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
You know, I've very moved and driven in many ways
by my grandfather's generation, that is to say, the generation
of Americans who fought for democracy in World War Two. Primarily,
I was also very impressed by the ones who fought
in the Spanish American Civil war without an organized military
to push back against fascism, and it feels like as
(29:20):
I watched this war unfold on television with my children
on the couch, and I saw these sort of normal
looking middle aged men saying goodbye to their wives and
children going off to fight a war in which I'm
sure you and I both thought they were vastly outnumbered
and out gunned, and it felt they're not coming back.
(29:40):
This is really horrible. And as I thought about it,
what they're fighting for, sovereignty, freedom, the right to raise
their children the way they want to raise them, to
speak the language that they want to speak. Those are
American values, and why aren't we in this? It has
so little to do with me having some Ukrainian ancestry,
(30:01):
and everything to do with what I believe American values
are and what our place is in the geopolitical world,
of what we provide, what we provide to our own citizens,
and the opportunity that we present to those who are persecuted.
And it just felt, you know, after having spent the
(30:23):
past twenty some odd years of my life being very
well rewarded by my career and my life here, that
it was the least I could do to respond to something,
and the minute that my celebrity, which had really done
nothing but break the misery to this point, and my children.
It makes raising children incredibly difficult, as you.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Probably, Yeah, I can relate to.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
That extraordinary job. Yeah, it just it suddenly was paying
back in dividends. Like I was able to accomplish things.
I was able to speak to people like you. I
was able to get the attention of the media, and
I was able to point focus where I felt focus
should be pointed. And that was an incredibly good feeling.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
You know, it sounds very much like it was a
combination of your head and your heart. I mean, you
really brought it all together in this. And you've actually
been to Ukraine, most of our listeners, haven't. I think
you've made a film inside Ukraine.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Well, I've made a few. Now. Initially, what I was
trying to do was to sort of film the situation
on the ground in the hopes that I would bring
those films back and they would raise money. Yes, that's
obviously what we're trying to do, is we're trying to
raise money to fund these organizations. And then once I
got to meet President Lensky and had a couple of
interviews and talks with him, we decided together that making
(31:46):
a documentary would be useful. So I sat down with
the president for a series of interviews, and Andre Singer,
who made a really wonderful portrait of Korbache'v, worked with
me on the film.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Also has that come out yet?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
No, it hasn't. We've just finished.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Thank you for finishing it. I mean, it's really I
think we should flood the zone. There needs to be
as many documentaries, you know, fictional narratives that are kind
of docu dramas.
Speaker 4 (32:13):
It's impossible for people to tell unless they've seen it,
unless they see it and they feel it. And that's
the other thing is I think that we are essentially
emotional creatures. And you're right to say I came in
with my head in my heart. I would say mostly
my heart, because my head is getting thicker at this
point in my life.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
But well, you've taken a lot of blows to it
in your film career.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
When you feel something, it's true, you know, you know
it exists in your bones. And that thing about seeing
these stories, I'm really I can't begin to say how
impressed I am by the Ukrainian people, and also how
concerned I am that they're getting tired and that we
need to continue to support them.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
We'll be right back. You know, when you talk about
what you're doing and the fact that you met President Zelenski,
describe for our listeners what you thought of him. This
(33:22):
Youngish man who you know somewhat improbably got elected president
in the first place, then gets thrust into wartime leadership.
And I see you grinning on the video.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Well, no one was expecting President Zelenski's response. No one
was expecting that level of courage. I grinned because we
shared a profession. And you know people say such awful
things about actors, Well here's one, here's one who proved
his metal. But no one was expecting that level of courage, frankly,
(33:57):
and it's exactly what the world. It's not just what
Ukraine need, it's what the world needed. Those principles and
that dignity. That little recording that he made on his
phone after the first night, smiling with the other generals,
saying yatut moitut at these words in Ukrainians you probably know,
mean we are here. I'm here, the President's here, We're
(34:20):
not going anywhere, and the part that resonated for me. Moitut,
we're here, We're here together. That's what matters, that we
can face this down, we can stand down bullies. He's
not a tall guy, you know. Most people know him
as one of the funniest actors to ever come out
of the entertainment industry in Ukraine, and super talented, super intelligent,
(34:43):
but not Henry the Fifth. And here he had the intelligence,
he had the dignity, he had the humanity to make
the right choice. He knew what the right choice was,
that some things are worth putting your life on the
line for. And for me that resonated so deeply with
my American values and the patriots in our history and
(35:06):
our life who made our lives possible. I owe them
a debt, you know, and I owe people like him
a debt. And so I was incredibly honored to get
to meet him. And Madame Zelenska, as you know, as
well as also extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
In her own she really is too. You mentioned that
you were watching Ukraine coverage with your children. I know
you've just had a new baby, so I assume it's
your two older children, right, Yes, that sounded so important
to me that you were watching with your children and
talking to them about what they were seeing. What was
(35:39):
that experience likelyav.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
I have to admit that it was a selfish one
that I was looking at these people serving their country
and I was thinking what have I done as I
sat there with my kids, and how could I explain
our lives in a way that made sense to them?
But I also I think it was important to expose
(36:02):
them to the situation. They were old enough, in my opinion,
Guy was thirteen and Sasha was fifteen to understand it,
or at least to ask questions and to understand who
we are and by that I don't mean Ukrainian. By that,
I mean Americans and where we fit into something like this,
(36:23):
and what we do when this kind of barbarism. You know,
the military strategy that he's employing that attacks not just
civilian infrastructure but medical infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
That's right, hospitals.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Intentionally, Which is why we really, really really need to
keep our eye on Ukraine and to continue to help
our brothers and sisters who are fighting for those values.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Amen, Well, I can't thank you enough for stepping up
and stepping into this important matter and using your reach
to try to keep us all focused on what's really important.
Thank you so very.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Much, Thank you, Madam Secretary.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
To learn more about the work Blue Check Ukraine is doing,
or to make a donation that they can get directly
into the hands of people on the ground in Ukraine
doing essential work, go to blue Check dot in. I
know that the sheer number of critical hotspots simmering across
our globe right now can be overwhelming, and yes it
(37:32):
is hard to follow it all, to make sense of
it all, but we cannot look away and we cannot
turn inward. The fight for Ukraine's freedom is far from over,
and it's vital that we not lose focus on the
essential need to secure peace and safety for all people.
So take care, hold your loved ones close, and let's
(37:56):
do everything we can to keep fighting for peace, democracy
and security, you and me both. Is brought to you
by iHeart Podcasts. We're produced by Julie Subren, Kathleen Russo
(38:20):
and Rob Russo, with help from Huma Abadeen, Oscar Flores,
Lindsey Hoffman, Sarah Horowitz, Laura Olin, Lona Valmoorro and the
Lily Weber. Our engineer is Zach McNeice and the original
music is by Forrest Gray. If you like you and
(38:40):
me both, tell someone else about it. And if you're
not already a subscriber, what are you waiting for? You
can subscribe to you and me both on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening,
and I'll see you next week
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