Steven Moore used to work the halls of Congress for the Republican cause, but he has left behind the collonades of the Capitol and the political hustle of Washington DC for the bomb shelters of Kyiv and the war-ravaged Ukraine.
Moore, the former chief of staff to the senior Republican Congressman Peter Roskam, who left office in 2018, relocated to Kyiv after Putin’s full-scale invasion.
Within a week of Putin declaring war on Ukraine in 2022, Moore founded the Ukraine Freedom Project (UFP). The nonprofit organization has since delivered more than $1.2 million worth of aid to the front lines, including medical supplies, food, generators, power banks, drones, and Starlink WiFi.
Meanwhile, Moore was once an insider regarding DC’s lobbying culture or congressional standstills, having spent years on Capitol Hill, is disillusioned by the stagnating support from some of his fellow Republicans back home.
A $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is being held up by the House of Representatives by some Republican lawmakers. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson is blocking it after it was overwhelmingly approved in a Senate vote, saying he was in “no rush” to adopt the legislation.
“What most Americans don’t realize is that the weapons we’re sending are secondhand weapons we have. I’ve seen the Humvees that have gone over there. They’re not in the best shape,” Moore told Business Insider.
Moore said Ukraine’s urgent need for military aid was symbolized for him when he saw a Ukrainian soldier using a My Little Pony backpack for his munitions.
‘Ukrainians can win if we give them the weapons’
Courtesy of Steven Moore
“I’m trying to bridge that gap between Americans and Ukrainians and help Americans understand that the Ukrainians are people like them and the most horrific things in the world possible are happening to people like them. If we don’t continue to support Ukraine, then the Russians will roll through Ukraine,” Moore told BI.
However, he recognizes that the roots of Republicans’ dwindling support for Ukraine stem from prioritizing homegrown problems.
Moore believes the top issue for Republican voters is the border and the migrant crisis. Ukraine was bottom of the list, he said.
Given these priorities and the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan, “it is understandable that Americans don’t want to get involved in another foreign adventure that they see no benefit from,” Moore told BI.
Steven Moore/Ukraine Freedom Project
But Ukraine also has direct ramifications for US citizens, he said. With global stability at an all-time low, Russia pushing through Ukraine would only further destabilize the international arena and imperil NATO countries like the US.
Following the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive last summer and recent gains for Putin’s forces with the hard-fought capture of the eastern town of Avdiivka, there’s a “narrative that’s out there, which is not true, is that Ukraine can’t win,” said Moore, who said he had witnessed the resilience and determination of Ukrainians at firsthand.
“What I have seen is that Ukrainians can win if we give them the weapons,” he said.
‘I’m doing the right thing’
Courtesy of Steven Moore
Moore has been hands-on and has visited the front lines “a dozen times.” For several months, he and a Ukrainian friend, Anatoly, “ran around Ukraine, like Batman and Robin, bringing supplies to places and just filling in the gaps where we could.”
In the early months of the war, Moore witnessed civilian casualties he saw pouring in from battles in Irpin and Bucha. “The place was just overwhelmed. These doctors didn’t have the meds. They didn’t have the space. They didn’t have the equipment. But they were trying to save these people’s lives,” he told BI in 2022
One recipient of UFP aid was American combat nurse Rebekah Maciorowski, who has been evacuating soldiers on the front lines since the early days of the full-scale invasion, notably from the recently fallen town of Avdiivka.
Others include 22 hospitals stocked with medical supplies thanks to donations made to UFP.
He has found partners to support his efforts, including a significant one in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma —Medical Supplies Network Inc. is putting together a container of pre-owned medical and orthopedic equipment, hospital beds, and other much-needed donations for Ukraine.
“It’s worth well over a million bucks,” said Moore.
The energy, enterprise, and potential of Ukrainians inspire Moore.
“In the first year of the war, the Ukrainian tech sector grew 21%, so that’s a testament to the entrepreneurship of Ukrainians,” he told BI.
“In Ukraine, they’re making music and they’re building startups in garages in garages. Every third person I meet is an entrepreneur in Ukraine. So it’s a really exciting place to be— to be in that environment was just mind-blowing,” he said.
Moore left the Hill around 2014, and his career has taken him around the world, including other conflict zones. Work had him spend an earlier stint in Kyiv from 2018 to 2019 when he first tasted the city’s exciting up-and-coming energy.
Moore stocked up as best when the Russian invasion began before heading to Ukraine.
Steven Moore/Ukraine Freedom Project
That meant sweeping through a hunting store in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, for “everything I could figure out that might be somewhat useful to anyone in a war,” Moore said. That initial haul included satellite mapping gadgets, walkie-talkies, knives, flashlights, and binoculars.
“Bass Pro Shop was not designed to outfit soldiers, but I took everything they might have,” he said in a previous BI interview.
He then “hopped on a plane, landed in Bucharest, drove to the border with Ukraine, and started trying to help and have been helping ever since,” Moore said.
“The opportunity cost for my being here in Ukraine in terms of personal finances is a foolish decision, but I’m doing the right thing,” he said.
