How The A Team Started
The A team has been operating in Ukraine since early March 2022. The team started with 4 original people. Nathen Lopez, Devin Hall, Scott Lyons, and "Viking". We all met in Ukraine while working in other NGO’s or independently.
The team was started with a common goal. To provide fast supply drops directly to those requesting as financially efficient as possible. We ensured delivery using two methods. First, the team would take the supplies ourselves to cut out the middleman. This helped us control the transport of supplies and to build repour, to gain a list of trusted contacts. Secondly, the rare occasion we could not deliver ourselves we would relay on other volunteers that we worked with and trusted to accomplish the drop. With this method we require that a picture of the supplies and if opsec permits of the requester to show proof of drop at end destination.
What has the A Team Achieved in Ukraine
To date the team has done over 100 supply drops. The team has supported varying areas of need with running donated supplies. We have supported hospitals/field hospitals with medical supplies and diesel for their generators (so that they didn’t have to do surgeries by candlelight). We have supported the UA Army and Foreign Legion units with water, MREs, medical supplies, generators, and cold weather gear. We’ve delivered food, clothes, and medical supplies, including life saving medicine to those in need. Some of these runs were for entire villages and others for families or a single person in the case of needed lifesaving medications for Asthma, cancer, blood pressure, and Seizures. We have supported other teams working with animals by supplying them with a van full of animal food, medicine, treats, crates, toys, and food/water bowls.
As the war changed the needs of the people changed. The team started to shift into not only making supply runs but also providing different types of evacs. To date we have done around 20 evacs ranging from civilian evacs to civilian medical evacs. Some of the more well-known medevacs the team has done are as follows.
- Evacing a patient with E-wings Sarcoma (had tumor growth covering half their face) to Germany for treatment
- Evacing an elderly patient with cancer (missing a portion of their face) to Germany for treatment
- Evacing a 98 yo disabled patient (blind and could not walk) away from the Zero Line of the front for safety
- Evacing a patient with leukemia to Poland for hospice care
The A team has also worked with other independent teams to support recently liberated cities in the form of medical care. The team was one of the first volunteers in Kherson after it was liberated, providing medical care. We did this out of ambulances with other medical volunteers to support the civilian population that was left after the Russians were pushed out.
Our Mission
To continue providing the Ukrainian people with morally driven, highly effective, support through running donated supplies, providing medical assistance, and medical training.
By donating and supporting the A Team what do you get?
Simple, you get to help support a team that is willing and able to support the Ukrainian people anyway they can. You get to know that the donation you make goes directly to helping the Ukrainian people and not to some big NGO that only gets a small portion of its donations to effected persons. Our team are all volunteers and are not looking to profit off of this terrible war, only to continue our work. You get the satisfaction of knowing you were on the right side of history. Showing Putin that the world will not stand for the complete disregard for human life that he and his regime have, Slava Ukraini!
