KHARKIV – Each time U.S. philanthropist Amed Khan returns to Ukraine, he begins by offering condolences for those killed in the war since his last trip. Over the past two and a half years, his group has provided over $50 million in aid to civilians and soldiers fighting to survive Russia’s invasion.
Some of those are already dead.
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For Khan, a U.S. government official turned philanthropist, those he supports are like family. He travels to meet them on the front lines and in war-torn cities. His closeness to those enduring the war also exposes him to the pain and loss they experience first-hand.
“When you’re involved with people directly, you feel the pain of war,” he says, moments after meeting a father who survived a bombing that killed his son.
Khan and many other Americans across the U.S. political spectrum who support Ukraine's war effort, either through financial aid or voluntary combat, say the U.S. — Ukraine’s main ally — hasn’t done enough to help Ukraine defeat Russia. They doubt Tuesday’s U.S. elections will change that.
“Since the war began, the United States did manage to rally the allies to support Ukraine, but not in the way it should,” said Khan, who worked on the re-election campaign for then-President Bill Clinton in 1996.
“So my belief is that their strategy is not for Ukraine to necessarily win and for Russia to lose.”
He spoke to The Associated Press over the weekend in the eastern Kharkiv region, one of several stops on his planned route — all located along the front line.
The U.S. has provided over $59.5 billion in military aid since Russia invaded in 2022, yet many say Kyiv’s potential has often been stymied by American politics. Ukrainian officials say that promised weapons frequently arrive late.
Zelensky’s requests for an invitation to join NATO and permission to use Western-donated weapons to strike deeper into Russia have been met with caution by the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden over fears of escalation with a nuclear-armed Russia.
Biden's vice president, the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, is likely to pursue a similar policy, while former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has repeatedly taken issue with U.S. aid to Ukraine and might seek to further limit military support, though he also has cited an undetailed plan to end the war quickly.
Meanwhile, Russia has succeeded in strengthening its alliances with Iran and North Korea, the latter reportedly sending troops to aid Russia’s fight.
“If the war escalates, then we’re in it … and we’re not even providing Ukraine enough to win,” another U.S. philanthropist, Howard G. Buffett, said during a recent visit to Ukraine, his 16th since the outbreak of the war. “And we’ve never had a strategy on how we’re going to defeat Russia," Buffett said.
Buffett, a Republican and son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, focuses on humanitarian needs like infrastructure, agriculture, and demining, and his foundation has contributed about $800 million to Ukraine.
“If Ukraine is not successful, the rest of the democratic world is going to pay a high price,” Buffett told AP. “And the fact that we don’t all collectively understand that, see that, and act on it is going to be the biggest mistake of what will ever occur in my lifetime.”
Compelled by this same belief, one American volunteer flew to Poland in August to enlist in Ukraine’s international legion, after ruminating over the choice for about a year.
“I feel like the decision was harder than it should have been,” says the 35-year-old fighter, who asked to be identified by the call sign Smoky in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol. A former accountant with no military experience, he now serves in one of Ukraine’s units in eastern Kharkiv region.
Smoky, a father of two young daughters, says watching the impact of Russia’s invasion on Ukrainian families “weighed heavily” on him.
While the U.S. election campaign rages back home, Smoky says he’s glad to be “away from all that drama.” Instead he is focused on preparing for his first mission as an infantryman.
“We’re tying Ukraine’s hands with restrictions on using specific weapons,” he argues. “It feels like we’re just prolonging the war.”
Another 25-year-old volunteer fighter from Texas, with the call sign Dima, began a three-month commitment to fight in Ukraine in 2022, and that has since turned into a commitment of years.
A former Marine, he has seen some of the war’s fiercest battles, including the longest one for Bakhmut, after which he took his only break. When he flew back to meet his family and friends at home, nobody could relate to his experiences.
On top, “the U.S. is dealing with so many problems of our own right now,” he said.
“So they’re feeling like less inclined now to send more of our tax money here, which I understand,” he said. “But as an individual that’s been here since the beginning of the war, I see it is definitely needed.”
Khan, who now manages about 300 ongoing projects in Ukraine, urged his fellow U.S. citizens to focus on the lives shattered by the conflict in Ukraine, stressing that the war’s outcome could significantly affect global security.
Khan said he hopes the winner of the U.S. presidential election will "really, really spend more time understanding what's happening here. I would urge whoever wins to do that and then try and seek a new way forward to end this war.”
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Associated Press journalist Volodymyr Yurchuk contributed to this report.