Don’t Forget Ukraine (with Liev Schreiber and Olga Rudneva) - podcast episode cover

Don’t Forget Ukraine (with Liev Schreiber and Olga Rudneva)

Oct 24, 202339 min
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Episode description

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. 

 

You can read a full transcript HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

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, 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 September in New York City. Recently. Where am I talking to you now?

Speaker 2

Right now?

Speaker 3

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

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

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 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

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,

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

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, 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

Exactly.

Speaker 3

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 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 new life, bring them back to the economical system, to the civil life and to their families.

Speaker 1

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 placement of bombs and minds. Is that correct?

Speaker 3

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 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 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

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 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

And that's the war. You know, we are surviving for year and a half already.

Speaker 1

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 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? 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

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 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. 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 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 bring the best equipment.

Speaker 2

We don't have expertise in Ukraine.

Speaker 3

So we started training especialists all over the world and 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 eight hundred patients in line waiting for their prestiges.

Speaker 1

And how many people have you treated since you've been.

Speaker 3

Open since mid of April. We installed two hundred precises. 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

We have a patient in Ukraine.

Speaker 3

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

And I look at him. He is absolutely amazing.

Speaker 3

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

But who would look after difficult cases?

Speaker 3

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, 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 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 need here. Sometimes it's just to talk with the psychologist. So lots of stories, lots of stories.

Speaker 1

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 as human beings, you know, we get exhausted, we get tired. How do you keep going?

Speaker 3

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 want to have the rights.

Speaker 2

To go on my done if we don't like our governments.

Speaker 1

You know, that's Ukrainians, that's democracy, that's free.

Speaker 3

Yeah, you know, for the Russians, I guess it's going to be very big tragedy after the war. People don't know what are they fighting for.

Speaker 1

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

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 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 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

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 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

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 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 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 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, 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

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 tell our listeners.

Speaker 3

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

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

Thank you very much. Waiting for you at Superhumans.

Speaker 3

It'll be a great present and surprise for our patients and our doctors.

Speaker 1

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 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 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 joined us at CGI in September, and I'm really happy to be able to speak to him again.

Speaker 4

Hello Secretary Glinton.

Speaker 1

Hello, Hello, Oh, how are you doing today?

Speaker 4

I'm great. We've resolved all of the technical issues.

Speaker 1

That's always a good sign.

Speaker 4

I was really good at this stuff until I hit 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

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 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

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 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 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 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 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

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

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

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 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 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 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 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

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

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

Tough people, stubborn, maybe stubborn a little bit.

Speaker 4

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

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 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

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, 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

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 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. 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, 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 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

Probably, Yeah, I can relate to.

Speaker 4

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

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

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

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

Also has that come out yet?

Speaker 4

No, it hasn't. We've just finished.

Speaker 1

Thank you for finishing it. I mean, it's really I 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

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

But well, you've taken a lot of blows to it in your film career.

Speaker 4

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

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 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

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, 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 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, 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

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

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 that experience likelyav.

Speaker 4

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 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, 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

That's right, hospitals.

Speaker 4

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

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

Much, Thank you, Madam Secretary.

Speaker 1

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 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 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 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 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,

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