About Restore Ukraine

Mission

Restore Ukraine’s mission is to restore dozens of cities and hundreds of communities for Ukrainian families.

Vision

Restore Ukraine’s vision is to provide humanitarian support until all have food and home.

Restore Ukraine is a charity organization that was founded in February 2022 during the first week of the full-scale war in Ukraine. Its roots come from two brothers – Yaroslav and Stanislav Hnatusko – who started their volunteering cooperation with the key employees of a Ukrainian distributor of construction materials named “Atlant.” 

The headquarters of “Atlant” are located in Kharkiv, which borders with Russia and was subject to daily shelling during the first months of the war. Unfortunately, due to its location, Kharkiv became one of the most targeted and shelled cities in Ukraine. Under the leadership of two brothers, the employees of “Atlant” prepared and distributed hot meals to the people who were hiding in underground metro stations around the city. Next, the company’s warehouses were converted into shelters for local citizens who lost their homes. However, it soon became obvious that the needs of the city were much larger and, consequently, could not be fully covered by the internal resources of “Atlant.”

It was at this defining moment in the house of Yaroslav in Tennessee when he received a phone call from his brother. For about an hour, separated by thousands of miles, they discussed what could be done to help their motherland and ease the day-to-day life of Ukrainians. An hour later, they identified what humanitarian operations could be launched in the US to support already existing humanitarian operations from “Atlant.” This way, Yaro and Stan agreed on creating a standalone charitable organization named Restore Ukraine.

To start with, Yaroslav opened his contact book and reached out to all his friends. It was they and their families who provided the first crisis relief aid, because they trusted Yaroslav and not a cent of the money they donated would be wasted. Back then, Restore Ukraine was raising just over $1,000 per day. Such funds were only enough to buy food supplies for the soup kitchens, but it was critically insufficient to buy additional equipment to feed more people. Therefore, the nonprofit began to actively look for substantial partnerships to increase the scale of the humanitarian projects.

At this stage, Restore Ukraine started its cooperation with a number of global partners, such as the International Organization for Migration, International Justice Mission, Project Dynamo, MATTER, Goodwill, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, and United Help Ukraine. With the help of sponsors for major projects such as USAID, the European Community of Humanitarian Aid, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund, and the Government of Canada, the organization deployed assistance to Kharkiv residents in vulnerable communities. That included the distribution of food supplies, construction materials, and hygiene kits. What’s more, Restore Ukraine helped to equip hospitals and shelters and made possible the restoration of numerous damaged households.

During the two years of the full-scale war, Restore Ukraine has collected over $2 million to implement humanitarian projects to start restoring Ukrainian cities. The organization helped dozens of mothers to evacuate their kids to the EU countries; distributed 300 tons of food supplies and 650 tons of construction materials for people to repair their damaged houses. During the first month of the war, more than 4,000 Ukrainians received daily lunch boxes, cooked by Restore Ukraine volunteers. Another 5,000 people received assistance in the form of hygiene kits. This is not a complete list of good deeds that the organization’s donors and partners brought to Ukraine and its citizens through Restore Ukraine.

Now, the organization is fighting daily on the humanitarian front, helping hundreds of Ukrainians to survive. Even if there is still a long way to restore Ukraine, with such support we will withstand. One day, in one Tennessean house, the phone will ring, and one brother will say to another, “Brother, we won!”

To learn more about how Restore Ukraine is different from other nonprofits, click the button below:

The nonprofit does not discriminate against the people it serves based on race, ancestry, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, familial status, political affiliation, or any other legally protected status or characteristics.