American volunteers rush to aid Ukrainian victims of Russian war crimes

By Christopher Moore, APA war correspondent

Kharkiv, Ukraine

One man kept crying out for his phone and gesturing. I didn’t really understand what he wanted at first, but he was searching for his phone, and once we gave him it,
he called his brother to tell him he loved him… and then he died.

A woman was pouring out blood

Christopher Moore, American Press Association

Someone’s foot was blown off, and we just
spotted a finger,”

said Phillip Vu, a Vietnamese-American volunteer in Ukraine, while sitting on a bench as his team awaits the tow for their shelled van.

After this, I need to go back to Kyiv to rest. I have so much respect for those who can do this every day in the military. I don’t know how they can keep going after this.”

Earlier that day, on 28 May 2022, in Kharkiv, a group of American volunteers ran towards the site of Russian shelling that killed nine Ukrainian civilians, including a five-month-old baby, while the families were strolling in a park next to a Soviet monument. In shock, as there is not a military site for miles in every direction, Chris Tiller, a pilot from Oregon, dragged one victim to safety, put four tourniquets on the victim and applied bleed stop and gauze to other wounds, as the team members similarly aided other victims.

“Luckily,”Chris said, “the one Army veteran on the team, Ken Brady, had instructed the rest of the team on how to use the equipment when they arrived in the country to drive food and supplies from Poland to the villages around Kharkiv, which had only recently been liberated from the Russians. This preparation allowed the newly assembled team to help when hearing and seeing the strikes while eating lunch at a restaurant across the street – arriving ten minutes before the Ukrainian ambulance.

Only later did they realize their vehicle was also struck. Since journalists filmed the aftermath vehicle that was still immobilized, they feared follow-on strikes and contacted locals to locate a tow to leave the scene as quickly as possible.

Kharkiv, Christopher Moore, American Press Association

While waiting, Phillip, a Tik Tok creator who had recently joined the team to film, said he felt compelled to move to Kyiv to find some way to help because he loved the time he spent in Ukraine although he thought he was only going to be filming the delivery of supplies to villages.

Phillip was quickly introduced to the horror of war when he was scrambling for his medical bad and giving aid to the Ukrainian victims.

Before a taxi driver arrived with a tow strap in hand, he said that he was going to write instead of filming his thoughts – a better way to focus on what it must feel like to be a Ukrainian subjected to a daily Russian brutality while the world watches from their phones – in contrast to what he was feeling by witnessing only one of many war crimes over eight years of war.

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The Renegade Relief Runners volunteer team. (Photo Credit: Jay Beecher)

Christopher Moore, APA

USAF veteran intelligence officer reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

I am a former Captain in the United States Air Force currently in Ukraine to report on the front lines on the Eastern Front. I am being sponsored by LtCol Rip Rawlings .

I previously served in the Afghanistan war and the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008.

Outside of the military I worked for International Rescue Committee in Syrian Refugee camps in Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan.