In The Press

After the 2022 Russian invasion, Mr. Grot wanted to expand access to the sport. In 2023, he teamed up with a local jujitsu program to have a new gym built in Kyiv where soldiers and veterans could practice together. It was financed in part by grants and donations, including from the U.S.-based charity Nova Ukraine.

Nova Ukraine, one of the largest US charities providing humanitarian aid to the country, also participated. Its chief executive officer, Ambassador Erin McKee, told RFE/RL that its goal was to highlight urgent winter needs on the ground — ranging from basic humanitarian assistance to amplifying the voices of children, teachers, and doctors living through the conflict every day. Since 2014, the organization says, it has disbursed approximately $150 million in assistance.

The U.S.-based Nova Ukraine NGO is among the groups organizing their own “invincibility points.” “It may sound very basic, but when it is around -18C outside and there is no heating in your apartment, the ability to come somewhere, drink a cup of hot tea and warm up can become — quite literally — a matter of survival,” Olena Drozd, Nova Ukraine’s infrastructure lead, told ABC News.

Chairman and co-founder of the nonprofit Nova Ukraine, Mikola Bilogorskiy, told Newsweek that the probe that led to Yermak’s resignation showed that “Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies are working as intended.”

A medical warehouse belonging to the US-based charity Nova Ukraine has been destroyed in Lviv as a result of a Russian missile and drone attack on 19 November.