As the first Russian rockets were launched into neighboring Ukraine and the casualties started to pile up, a group of Tampa-based veterans quietly got to work.
Ukraine Project Dynamo, a nonprofit organization in Florida made up of mostly volunteers who are either current or former U.S. military members, has been actively working behind the scenes to evacuate about two dozen Americans stranded in the chaos and terror of the fast-moving Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. government has so far ruled out sending troops in to rescue Americans. With nobody coming, the group of vets, who have decades of experience in special operations and intelligence between them, knew it was up to them to get the job done.
Project Dynamo began making its initial Ukraine plans in January. It recently reported that it had a presence in the capital city of Kyiv, and over the weekend, it said it was preparing for an American evacuation. That urgency intensified after the U.S. State Department evacuated diplomatic personnel and abandoned the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. The need to get Americans out of danger went into emergency mode late Wednesday after Russia ruthlessly attacked Ukraine by land, air, and sea.
“Project Dynamo is currently conducting the very first rescue of Americans, approximately 28 that we’re actively working as we speak,” Project Dynamo spokesman James Judge said.
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The nonprofit’s organizers said Thursday that they were in the process of getting a woman from New Mexico to safety. The woman, whose name was not given, had traveled to Ukraine for her father’s funeral. She wrote to the organization asking for help and told them she didn’t think the situation in Ukraine would escalate as quickly as it did.
The rescue operation for stranded Americans began in Kyiv as Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital were starting in the predawn darkness. The evacuees met at a predetermined rendezvous point and left Kyiv in three vehicles bound for an American embassy in an undisclosed neighboring country.
“The evacuation began minutes after our team on the ground physically felt the nearby explosions in Kyiv,” Judge said.
The group said it had been contacted by hundreds of stranded Americans. U.S. officials estimate there are about 30,000 Americans living in Ukraine.
Other countries have also been trying to get their citizens out with varying degrees of success.
A few weeks ago, as tensions between Ukraine and Russia were rising, Ukraine kept its airspace open for civilian flights, allowing nonessential foreigners, students, and the families of embassy staff to fly out of the country.
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But when the bombing began and the tanks started rolling in, Ukraine issued a NOTAM [Notice to Air Missions] restricting all civilian flights to and from the region.
An Air India plane — one of three scheduled to be sent to evacuate Indian citizens from Kyiv — was forced to return mid-flight. Other flights, including one from Ukraine International Airlines, were diverted to an airport in Moldova, which shares its northern border with Ukraine.
But even before Russian troops raided Ukraine, some airlines had already suspended their flights, citing serious safety concerns in both Russia and Ukraine.
On Monday, Lufthansa and Swiss Airlines suspended their flights to Kyiv. Air France and SAS followed suit. Lufthansa also stopped flying to Odessa. Dutch airline KLM announced it would stop flying anywhere in Ukraine.
It is unclear what, if any, plans other countries are making to pull citizens out of the war-torn country.
About a week before the invasion began, more than a dozen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, told their nationals to leave Ukraine. So did Australia, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, and Japan.
Nonessential staff were ordered to leave the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Canada moved its embassy staff to Lviv, near the border with Poland. About 150 U.S. troops who were training Ukrainian soldiers were ordered to leave the country out of “an abundance of caution.”
Unlike her counterparts, Melinda Simmons, U.K. ambassador to Ukraine, tweeted she and a core team would stay in Kyiv. Ironically, Russia also moved some of its personnel out of Kyiv, claiming it was “optimizing the staffing” due to “possible acts of provocation by the Kyiv regime or third countries.”
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With little help in sight, foreign citizens have been scrambling to find their own way out.
Stuart McKenzie, who’s lived in Kyiv for nearly three decades and runs a successful business there, told the BBC that he’s ready, if necessary, to pack up his wife, two sons, and drive 300 miles to Poland where he hopes he’ll be able to catch a flight to safety.
