Our trusted teams in Ukraine
Our team members risk their lives every day, often working directly in the enemy’s crosshairs. To inspire Ukraine, and uplift the morale of the cities under siege, they maintain public profiles, despite great risk to their personal safety. We admire their selfless heroism and respect their choice to remain visible. Teams that operate privately will never be listed here.
Alena · operating in Odesa
Alena, a real estate professional during times of peace, is an experienced volunteer based in Odesa. She’s helped thousands of refugees in Odesa, and delivered aid to liberated territories and to sites or terrorist attacks in southern Ukraine. For many months we supported Alena's efforts through Natalia Mitsuta's organization, until Alena established her own NGO Diva (Virgo) to optimize logistics. Prior to 2014, Alena lived in Ukrainian Donetsk, but had to flee her home city after Russia-backed gangs usurped it in 2014.
Alina · operating in Kharkiv and Luhansk
Alina, originally from Dnirpo, began her volunteerism in 2014. It was then that she met future members of her nonprofit Dobra sprava (Good Deeds), including Ihor who had been actively helping people impacted by military conflict in Donbass. Over time their group grew into a strategic, efficient team able to respond deftly to emergencies. Just one day after the full-scale invasion began, Alina’s team opened a humanitarian aid center in Dnirpo; a week later they were evacuating residents from Kharkiv, then from the Luhansk Region where shelling was occurring daily. Currently, they are focusing on evacuating and supporting Ukrainians in the Donetsk and Kherson Regions.
Anastasia · based in Dnipro
Anastasia was born in the Luhansk Region. Her home town has been under occupation since 2014. At the start of the full-scale invasion she started helping volunteer centers and hospitals in Dnipro. Together with two other people, Anastasia cofounded the charitable organization LoveUA. One of the main missions of the organization is delivering humanitarian aid to deoccupied territories and towns near the frontline.
Andriy · operating in Kharkiv Region
Andriy is a priest and an iconic figure in the Dnipro suburbs, who has been running an effective NGO called Pomahaem (We Help) since 2014. He formed and manages a shelter that serves as the base for his team’s daring missions — rescuing the most vulnerable victims of the Russian invasion. His fearless volunteers systematically evacuated orphanages and nursing homes from the Kharkiv area, often under direct enemy fire. In addition to the evacuations, Andriy’s shelter holds community events and provides education to children housed there, as well as assists his evacuees in their journeys further West, to Italy, Portugal, Norway and other European countries.
Bohdan · operating in Zhytomyr
Bohdan founded the NGO Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves) when he was 16, and has led it for over 20 years. This organization has worked with children with special needs from large and economically distressed families. They have built playgrounds, organized camps and theater programs, and helped with rehabilitation. Since the full-scale invasion, Bohdan’s organization has continued supporting children with special needs and their families, and is also helping hundreds of internally displaced families in the area.
Dina · operating in Kharkiv and Dnipro
Dina became a volunteer leader in the first days of the war, after she was forced to leave her thriving real estate business in Kharkiv and relocate to Dnipro. Dina’s NGO Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country) distributes aid in four cities around eastern Ukraine. Dina procures aid and manages a network of volunteers who support the elderly and other people in need. In the early weeks of the invasion her buses evacuated hundreds of people daily, but as the need for evacuations declined, she refocused her efforts on scaling humanitarian aid deliveries to Kharkiv and supporting evacuees from other cities, such as Mariupol, Berdyans’k, and Severodonetsk.
Inna · operating in southeastern Ukraine
Inna’s NGO Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope) provides humanitarian aid to refugees in more than 30 locations across eastern and southern frontlines, serving 10,000+ families weekly. UTC is the primary source of funding for the 40 tons of aid shipments and its distribution across Inna's centers.
Karina · operating in Dnipro
Karina procures and distributes humanitarian aid in areas most affected by the war, as well as runs a shelter for displaced people in Dnipro. At the start of the full-scale invasion, she facilitated evacuations from Mariupol, Berdyans’k, Severodonetsk, Lysychans’k, and other hard-hit cities. Karina is also a realtor who knows the terrain and has an excellent network of connections that helps her to be efficient in her volunteer efforts. Her courage and energy are awe-inspiring.
Kseniia · operating in Kyiv
Kseniia, a florist in her previous life, heads a massive volunteer operation in the Kyiv area. Her efforts are always focused on the most urgent needs at hand. She has collaborated with other groups including Natalia’s organization, to supply kitchens and restaurants that feed thousands of people daily. Kseniia has also been active in helping medical institutions, outfitting blood transfusion centers in Kharkiv and intensive care units in Kyiv’s civilian and military hospitals. Like other large Kyiv teams, Kseniia’s group, Livyy bereh (Left Bank), is doing everything it can to save the liberated towns of Bucha, Borodyanka, and others from humanitarian catastrophe, left in the wake of the unfathomable atrocities perpetrated by the invaders.
Marina · operating in Dnipropetrovsk Region
Marina was among the first to establish a charity in her town of Piatykhatky in the Dnipropetrovsk Region. In 2018, she started a volunteer group that grew into a public organization called Bezkoshtovna kramnychka (Free Shop), which provides free assistance to vulnerable populations. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion their free shop already had six sites in four communities and a team of 30 volunteers. Marina is the heart of the organization and the driving force behind all initiatives implemented by another organization — Daruy dobrо Ukrayina (Give Good Ukraine) — which regularly provides aid to thousands of individuals.
Natalia · operating in Kyiv
Natalia heads our largest flagship team, which includes more than 70 volunteers in different roles. Her efforts concentrate on the most urgent opportunities for providing humanitarian aid. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion she focused on helping elderly people unable to leave Kyiv, then expanded to feeding thousands of needy residents left in the city. Currently, she focuses on sending humanitarian convoys to the Chernihiv area and the liberated towns of Bucha, Irpin’, and Hostomel. Natalia is recognized in Kyiv as one of preeminent forces in the humanitarian relief efforts within the capital.
The connection formed with Natalia gave our founder the initial idea for the UTC organization. See our founding story for details.
Oleksandr · operating across central and eastern Ukraine
Pavel connected us with Oleksandr, a scholar and volunteer leader based in Lutsk, who organizes and coordinates humanitarian aid deliveries and evacuation missions in central and eastern Ukraine. He works with a number of small mobile teams and larger volunteer organizations such as Inna Kampen’s Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope).
Pavel · operating across southern, eastern and northeastern Ukraine
We are convinced that Pavel will become a global symbol of selfless and fearless virtue. Pavel’s caravans have to date evacuated over 21,000 civilians, more than half of them children, from the most dangerous battle zones of southern, eastern and northeastern Ukraine. UTC began supporting Pavel’s rescue missions as soon as the full-scale invasion began. On the fourth day of the war, UTC sponsored a bus that allowed his organization to evacuate an orphanage out of Kherson a day before the city was taken by the enemy.
Tetiana · operating across central Ukraine
Tetiana heads a growing volunteer organization Dopomoha poruch (Help Is Near), operating in and around Smila, where she grew up and worked as a seamstress. Since the start of the war, Smila and surrounding villages have seen a great influx of refugees from Kharkiv, Sumy, Bucha, Sievierodonetsk, Kramatorsk and many other cities from the war-torn regions of Ukraine. Tetiana has been helping refugees, local hospitals and residents with food, medicine, and other resources. Her small and very effective team procures and distributes goods to those in need in Smila and nearby areas.
Timur · operating in Kharkiv
Timur is a Kharkiv native, specifically of Northern Saltivka (the hardest hit part of the city). Before the Russian invasion he was an aspiring musician. Timur, with the help of his team of 30 local residents, has procured and distributed thousands of packages of humanitarian aid. Timur’s volunteers enter occupied areas even under heavy shelling to deliver aid to people who sometimes haven’t seen any help in months.
Vitaliy N · operating in Kyiv
Vitaliy N, a lawyer from Kyiv, began his active volunteer work with the nonprofit organization Amicus Ukraine in July 2022, immediately after the start of the full-scale war. Along with his team, he organized and directly imported humanitarian aid worth tens of thousands of dollars for hospitals and other civilian and government organizations. Vitaliy’s team comprises individuals from diverse professions, including businessmen, consultants, and engineers, all working toward the common goal of helping vulnerable individuals affected by the war. In recognition of his significant contribution, Vitaliy was awarded the medal of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2022.
Vladislav · operating across Ukraine
Vladislav is a metal artist by trade. Prior to the war, he practiced his art in a small studio in Kyiv. From the first days of the war, Vladislav became a volunteer, evacuating people to safety, delivering food and medicine, and helping to create a mobile medical clinic. These efforts resulted in the founding of the Angelia Charity Fund, which focuses on providing free medical care and humanitarian aid to people impacted by the war all over Ukraine, but particularly in deoccupied territories.