Mykola Kuleba

Mykola Kuleba founded Save Ukraine in 2014, during the early days of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The foundation was set up as the humanitarian crisis deepened after Russia's annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of violence in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and it began with emergency aid and evacuation for displaced families. Save Ukraine describes itself as a registered charitable organization that coordinates dozens of organizations, volunteers, individuals and legal entities to help people affected by war, with a special emphasis on children.

He was Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children's Rights from 2014 to 2021. His foundation describes him as a Ukrainian civic and political figure with more than 27 years of experience in child rights protection and a globally recognized expert in the field. His own profile page lists the Oxi Courage Award and the Manhae Peace Award 2023 among his international honours, and links readers to the Wikipedia article about him, which adds that he headed the Kyiv Children's Service from 2006 to 2014.

Save Ukraine calls itself the only organization in Ukraine offering a full cycle of support for children and families: rescue operations in Russia and the temporarily occupied territories, then long-term rehabilitation, document restoration, family reunification and the building of a new stable life at home. The counters on their site, read in September 2026, give 1,626 children rescued from Russia and the temporarily occupied territories, more than 5,000 families provided with safe shelter and trauma recovery programs, more than 165,000 children and family members evacuated from frontline areas, and more than 9,000 children's lives restored through reintegration programs.

The work runs through five programmes: Rescue Stolen Children, Hope and Healing Centres, the Child Protect and Restore Program, SchoolPack and a free hotline. A single rescue mission takes over a month to prepare and moves through identification, outreach and verification, and then the operation itself; the foundation documents each deportation case in detail for the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Families reach the foundation through the hotline on 0 800 333 129, which takes requests for evacuation from frontline zones and for return from the temporarily occupied territories and from Russia.

Save Ukraine was UAFest's charity partner for 2024, the year the festival raised $9,395 for it. In October 2024 that cheque was presented to Kuleba, as the foundation's founder, at a formal ceremony held together with Toby Randell, Mayor of Carleton Place.