Press Release
Mykola Kuleba
of Ukraine
2025
For his extraordinary work in rescuing Ukrainian children across the war-ravaged border with Russia and in the occupied territories.
Mykola Kuleba is the founder and leader of Save Ukraine — a man who has devoted 26 years of his life to protecting children from tyranny, violence, and war. Born in the Soviet Union, he witnessed the collapse of a totalitarian system and could not remain indifferent when, in the 1990s, thousands of children were left on the streets. Leaving behind a successful business career, he chose a different path — one of daily presence among the most vulnerable — creating the first rehabilitation centers and later leading Kyiv’s Child Services, where within just two years every child was removed from the streets of the capital.
He went on to found the nationwide movement Ukraine Without Orphans, which in the 2010s became the moral and organizational foundation of the global World Without Orphans movement, growing into a worldwide network spanning more than 50 countries — a vivid example of a locally born initiative reshaping global child-protection practice. From 2014 to 2021, he served as the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, advancing systemic reform while remaining grounded in direct work with children.
During the war, he repeatedly entered active combat zones, personally evacuating children from under shelling — including a nine-year-old boy from the village of Pisky who survived nine months of constant bombardment. After Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Save Ukraine confronted the machinery of occupation head-on, rescuing Ukrainian children by Russia or held in temporarily occupied territories from so-called “re-education” camps where they were isolated, threatened with psychiatric punishment, and forcibly issued Russian passports. Among them were 17-year-old Vlad Rudenko, who tore down a Russian flag and refused to submit to being turned into a russian soldier, and 15-year-old orphan Rostyk Lavrov, who was held in solitary confinement for 15 days for his pro-Ukrainian stance.
Mykola Kuleba stands between tyranny and childhood, rejecting the notion that any system has the right to break a child’s identity or future. His life reflects a consistent choice to act in defiance of fear — because the cost of silence is not measured in moments, but in generations.
