Ukraine Needs Ambulances, Other Transport, Here’s What Scott Kelly, UNITED24 Have Been Doing

Astronaut Scott Kelly knows a little about the importance of transport. After all, he’s gone on longer trips than nearly everyone on Earth. He’s traveled into space four times, which is four times more than most people, and commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on Expeditions 26, 45, and 46. Therefore, it’s fitting that Kelly has been helping address some of Ukraine’s most urgent transportation needs: the need for more ambulances and medical supply transport.

Since October 2022, Kelly has served as an ambassador for UNITED24, the fundraising platform started on May 5, 2022 by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine. In the one year since it was launched, UNITED24 has helped raise over $325,000,000 in donations from people and organizations across 110 countries. Kelly has focused a lot of his fundraising efforts on getting more transport vehicles to Ukraine. He got things started by donating $65,000 of his own money towards the first ambulance. In a recent conversation, Kelly described how he has already raised a total of “$650,000 to purchase ambulances, which is also contributing to the Ukrainian economy because many of the ambulances are being sourced in the country.”

Getting more ambulances is critical for Ukraine for two main reasons. One is, in case you haven’t noticed, there’s been a war in Ukraine ever since Russia invaded the sovereign country over a year ago. And wars typically aren’t fought with just pillows and silk scarves. Russia has used guns, bombs, missiles, and other types of artillery to pummel Ukraine, leaving lots of injured people, including many, many civilians. From the day that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022, through April 9, 2023, the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had recorded 22,734 civilian casualties in Ukraine with 8,490 people killed and 14,244 injured, according to their April 10, 2023, report. That’s over 22,000 civilians and not military personnel. The OHCHR did indicate that they believe “that the actual figures are considerably higher,” because the world is relying on those in Ukraine to count injuries and deaths. That’s not exactly easy to do when you are running for your own life as well. Add in the reports of sexual violence, torture and other human rights violations committed by Russian troops on the Ukrainian people as indicated by the United Nations’ UN News, and you’ve got a mess of badly injured people in Ukraine probably on a daily basis.

And, typically, badly injured people don’t simply walk to hospitals themselves. They won’t usually say, “I am bleeding heavily. Maybe I’ll just jog over the the emergency room after I get a mocha frappe magical unicorn latte with soy milk.” It’s not as easy as using an Uber or a Lyft either. You can’t pull out an app, order a ride-share, and expect the driver to message, “I’ll be there in 10 minutes if I don’t get blown up.” A Damage Assessment from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank described how Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure have already resulted in over $10 billion in damages. Evidence suggests that one of Russian’s tactics has been to try to cripple the Ukrainian infrastructure. That’s left a lot of the vehicles in Ukraine looking more like something that just came off a barbecue grill. All of this brings up the second main reason why Ukraine needs more ambulances: the general lack of such vehicles.

The lack of vehicles has resulted in another big medical problem: challenges getting various types of medical supplies to where they have to go throughout the country. After all, bandages, medications, medical equipment, and other such supplies do not have little feet or little wings. You can’t simply say “abracadabra” or “абракадабра” and expect such supplies to magically appear where they are needed. Kelly mentioned how he’s “trying to get together donations for supplies for first responders. It’s been challenging for them to get a lot of stuff they need. For example, a lot of soldiers going on without tourniquets.”

Yeah, things like tourniquets are sort of important. Your arm or leg won’t stop bleeding just because you tell it to stop bleeding. The war in Ukraine has shown how important properly functioning medical supply chains are. It’s easy to take for granted the supplies that already in the hospitals and clinics in high income countries that are not, you know, being invaded by a much larger country. In the U.S. in wealthy neighborhoods, it’s not common to wonder whether that hospital or clinic that you are going to will actually have bandages and medications.

The good news is that donor efforts have helped Ukraine get more medical transportation. For example, the combined efforts of UNITED24 have already helped raise funds to purchase 191 ambulances worth 40,500,000 UAH—which is over $1.1 in U.S. currency—according to a press release from UNITED24. UNITED24 thanked Kelly's fundraising efforts and contributions from UNITED24 partners Uber, The Zolotiy Vik jewelry chain, Grammarly and SkyUp. These vehicles are equipped with the means to provide intensive care to those who are badly injured.

But unlike the movie Avengers: End Game where the battle for the universe ended in under three hours, the war in Ukraine will likely continue for months and months more if not years and years more. Putin has not shown any signs of “Putin” away his ambition to take over Ukraine. And once again Russia is much bigger than Ukraine with a whole lot more resources.

UNITED24 does have a number of donors who have continued to contribute such as Taylor Freeman, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who fought in the Vietnam War. Freeman wrote, “Each month, my wife and I contribute as much as we can to United 24 and other charities benefiting Ukraine.” He continued with, “We direct a percentage to medical needs, such as the ambulance campaign and other important funds, some to refugee needs—both local and those displaced in Ukraine and Europe—some to rebuilding shattered areas, and some to combat needs, because as long as the war continues, the medical and rebuilding needs will continue to increase.” And another UNITED24 donor, Ogiya Eiji from Japan, indicated that, “Since the establishment of UNITED24, I have continued to support UNITED24, although it is a small amount every month. I see no reason not to support Ukraine, which has been suddenly invaded and [is] in need.”

Nevertheless, a continuing concern among those organizing relief efforts has been what Kelly has called “donor fatigue.” That’s when people grow more and more tired of contributing to an effort as time passes. Kelly emphasized how “tactically Ukraine has made some advances” over the past year and how people around the world have been so generous in coming to the aid of the Ukrainian people and how all of this has been a “global empowerment mission.” However, Kelly did worry that such aid efforts may be waning, especially with Ukraine no longer being in the news and social media spotlight that it was in during the early days of the war. And with attention spans these days often being about as long as an Instagram video or tweet, keeping politicians in the U.S. focused on a problem can at times seem as difficult as getting a squirrel to do yoga.