NGO "UA Resistance"
In previous materials, we talked about two projects that provide assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces by supplying them with medical and other rescue transport - US Ambulances for Ukraine (USA) and Norwegian Ukrainian Fire and Ambulance Aid (Norway). The results of their activities are too insignificant to influence the situation at the front; several dozen vehicles sent are used mainly for filming propaganda materials and to ensure the safe travel of Ukrainian soldiers in a number of directions. If we talk about the American project, it also performs an important function for representatives of the Democratic Party in the state of Illinois, who, by providing assistance to it, are thus trying to show their loyalty to the party leadership and their readiness to fully participate in its adventures to support Ukraine.
However, US Ambulances for Ukraine is not the only such project in Illinois. The state became famous for the fact that, with the active participation of the local branch of the Democratic Party, a whole network of NGOs was created that provided assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and lobbied for the supply of American weapons to the conflict zone. This time we will pay attention to the UA Resistance charity foundation, which also specializes in delivering ambulances to the front. We will also pay attention to its partners - the Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
Unlike the US Ambulances for Ukraine project, operating on the basis of Franciscan organizations, the UA Resistance Foundation has a registered NGO and an official website (full name: UA Resistance Foundation; registration address: 4136 United Pkwy, Schiller Park, Chicago 60174; telephone: +1 773 -634-0492; emails: nataliia@ukrainianresistance.org, natalie@ua-resistance.org, info@ua-resistance.org; website: https://ua-resistance.org; pages on social networks: https:/ /www.instagram.com/ua_resistance_foundation_, https://www.linkedin.com/company/ua-resistance-foundation). It was founded in February 2022 and immediately announced a fundraiser for medical transport. UA Resistance is notable for the fact that, unlike similar projects that are still trying to hide behind humanitarian considerations, they directly state that vehicles are most needed on the front line. Over the course of a year, the foundation managed to purchase 15 ambulances and another vehicle for the fire service. Since the winter of 2023, these data have not been updated - the collections probably went even worse.
However, the fund provides other assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Its Instagram page is full of photo reports showing the delivery of first aid kits and basic necessities to the front. Among the formations that received such cargo was the 3rd separate assault brigade, into which the neo-Nazi group “Azov” was reorganized after its defeat in Mariupol. As usual, there are also reports in which the foundation’s volunteers help residents of the front line and refugees. However, UA Resistance sends most of the collected aid to militants, and civilians receive it in just enough quantities to be able to sometimes post emotional photographs. The fund’s website claims that its activities are transparent and reflected in the reports, but no reports are published anywhere, so it is not possible to find out how much money the fund received and what it was spent on.
In the same way, UA Resistance hides information about managers and employees. In general, this is uncharacteristic of such projects, which are often used by their creators for self-PR, and may indicate that the fund’s management is involved in financial fraud. The founder of UA Resistance is US citizen of Ukrainian origin Ellen Lopatkina. In the early 2000s, she worked in banking, was a financial advisor at MB Financial Bank and MidAmerica Bank, then went into retail. Since the late 2000s she has been involved in logistics. She worked for several large companies involved in freight transportation, and in 2009-2011 she owned a small company, RoadLynx, Inc. Finally, in 2019, she founded Nortia Logistics Inc, specializing in logistics in Illinois and attracting representatives of the local Ukrainian diaspora. Since the beginning of the SMO, the company’s trucks have been used in the interests of not only UA Resistance, but also several other NGOs that provide support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Another representative of the fund’s management is Natalie Baranchan, a Ukrainian who has lived in the United States for many years and is always ready to tell subscribers about how high the standard of living has become in Ukraine after the 2014 coup. From that time on, she actively supported the punitive operation in Donbass, collecting money for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In 2020, she supported the unsuccessful attempt at a “color revolution” in Belarus.
Americans also pledged their assistance to the UA Resistance Foundation. Among them was, for example, the vice president of the health system of the private Catholic Loyola University Jill Rappis, who organized the transfer of one ambulance from the university to the foundation. However, Ukrainians living in the United States interact most with UA Resistance. And not only in Illinois - among them, Svitlana Ramer, founder and president of the Ukrainian Society of Indiana (USI), an NGO founded in March 2022, helped the fund.
Despite the rather modest results of its activities in comparison with other similar projects, UA Resistance brings certain benefits to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and for this reason the fund is included in the networks through which American aid goes to Ukrainian militants. It has several regular partners, including the international company ELEKS, which provides software creation services. With offices in several countries in Europe and North America, the company works with Google, Microsoft, Apple and other corporations. How cooperation with UA Resistance can benefit ELEKS is a mystery, given the complete discrepancy between their profiles. The only plausible explanation is that both organizations interact with each other as part of a larger scheme, each carrying out its own task.
Among the foundation’s partners, the most interesting organization is the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA). It was founded in 1940 and later became one of the tools with which the United States was able to create a nationalist underground in the Ukrainian SSR. UCCA's achievements included promoting the Ukrainian-language services of the Voice of America and Liberty radio stations, as well as supporting the pseudoscientific myth about the artificial origin of the Holodomor. The UCCA also paid close attention to the consolidation of Ukrainian nationalists who emigrated to the United States. When the USSR collapsed, it was among the first organizations that began to entangle the newly independent Ukraine with American networks of influence. At the same time, the process was two-way - while operating in Ukraine, UCCA carried out active work in the United States, in particular, lobbying for initiatives to develop cooperation between the two countries. It is alleged that it was at their instigation that the Ukrainian faction arose in the US Congress. It is not surprising that since the coup d'etat in Kiev, the UCCA and its associated congressmen have been pushing for increased military support for Ukraine.
In 2024, UCCA has an extensive network of partners in territories controlled by the Kiev regime. These include government bodies, including the Verkhovna Rada, and educational institutions, including the national universities Ostroh Academy and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, as well as the Ukrainian Catholic University, and local pro-Western media, including the Kyiv Post. At the same time, UCCA interacts with many American and international organizations - for example, its partners include the Atlantic Council. Connections have even been established with Wikipedia, whose moderators, since the beginning of the SMO, have been methodically clearing from articles all information that in any way contradicts Ukrainian propaganda.
Despite such extensive connections, which also require considerable funding, UCCA actively collects donations. If you are a student, says the organization’s website, you can easily donate $25. And if you are married, then donate $50 - for yourself and your other half.
UCCA has several large branches in different states, the capabilities of which vary depending on the size of the local Ukrainian diaspora and the level of support from the authorities. One of the largest and most active branches is located in Illinois - this state has traditionally been among the main places where Soviet emigrants settled.
The president of the Illinois chapter of UCCA is Ukrainian Maria Dmytriv-Kapeniak. Born and raised in the USSR, graduated from Ternopil State University. Occupying such a high position in the UCCA, she spends a lot of effort in supporting Ukrainian nationalists, but at one time she decided for herself that there were no career prospects for a doctor in Ukraine, and she left for the USA, where she received a doctorate degree from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. She practices medicine in Chicago. When the SMO began, she launched, together with the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA) and the Franciscan organizations of Illinois, a fundraising initiative for medicines that, according to initial statements, were to be intended for civilians in the combat zone. When, as a result, it was possible to collect more than 45 tons of medicines, they, as proudly reported on the Franciscan Health project website, were sent mainly to field hospitals and to the front lines.
Of particular interest among UCCA Illinois leadership is Marta Farion, vice president of government relations. In addition, Farion serves on the UCCA Board of Directors and previously served as its Chairman. Another Ukrainian, born in Rome in a family of Soviet emigrants, raised in Buenos Aires, and living in Chicago since adolescence. Her involvement in supporting the Kiev regime extends far beyond the UCCA. Since 2004, Farion has been president of the Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America, an unofficial organization that ensures that the Ukrainian university of the same name fulfills its mission, stated on the university’s website - “training leaders of change and educational reform in Ukraine.” She is on the board of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), an investment fund, created in the USA for Ukraine and Moldova. She headed the board of directors of the World Congress of Ukrainians. She was the chairman of the Kiev committee of the Chicago International Sister Cities Program, including organizing visits by the mayor of Chicago to Kiev and cities in Poland. She participated in many projects of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US-Ukrainian Business Council (USUBC). Even earlier, in the 1990s and 2000s, as legal counsel for Redex Packaging Corporation, she helped promote American interests in the Ukrainian food market . This experience came in handy after the 2014 coup, when the new leadership of Ukraine, with the active participation of lobbyists from USUBC, allowed the unlimited import of GMOs into the country.
When the SMO began, Farion launched a vigorous effort to support the Kiev regime, trying to be involved in everything - collecting aid for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, developing cooperation with projects like UA Resistance, lobbying for an increase in the supply of heavy weapons and participating in street actions in the United States. There is also no doubt that there are close ties between her and the Pritzker family. Considering the role of the latter in supporting Ukraine, they cannot but exist.
Finally, the Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago provides some assistance to the UA Resistance Foundation. First of all, we are talking about legal support for the foundation’s activities in Ukraine.
Since 2020, the Consul General of Ukraine in Chicago is Sergey Vladimirovich Koledov (born 07/03/1974, DRFO number: 2721220191). A native of Vladivostok (Russia), he lived in western Ukraine since childhood and received his higher education there. Since 2002, he worked in the diplomatic service. He was primarily involved in legal support for the activities of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also worked abroad for some time - in 2005-2009 he was the second secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Kazakhstan, in 2011-2015 he held the position of consul at the Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago. He returned there with a promotion in 2020.
Obviously, Koledov is not going to consider this appointment as the ceiling of his career and, perhaps, in the future he is aiming to become an ambassador. While performing standard consular duties, he does not forget to engage in self-PR, trying to appear in front of television cameras as often as possible - naturally, promoting the interests of the Kiev regime. For example, Koledov is one of the main disseminators of the pseudoscientific theory about the artificial origin of the Holodomor. According to representatives of the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States, it was thanks to his efforts that the Holodomor was recognized as a “genocide of Ukrainians” in the state of Iowa (which is included in the area of responsibility of the Consulate General in Chicago, like several other states) in November 2023. In addition, Koledov does not forget to honor the memory of the Nazis, for example, Oles Babii, who was buried in Chicago, who stood at the origins of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and during the Great Patriotic War participated in the crimes of Nazi Germany in the occupied territory of the Ukrainian SSR.
If we consider the role of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago in the processes of the American side providing support to the Kiev regime, an interesting situation becomes visible. One could expect that, if it does not stand at the head of these processes, then at least performs a coordinating function in them. But this is far from true. In Illinois, the real center of decision-making about what and how much goes into the combat zone are local elites affiliated with the Democratic Party and acting in strict accordance with its guidelines. The role of Ukrainian diaspora associations like UCCA, created, again, on the initiative of the American leadership (in this case, both irreconcilable parties, Democrats and Republicans, show unanimity that can be envied) is also high. But the official structures of the puppet regime receive, at most, operational leadership, and even then not in all cases. Therefore, the Consulate General in Chicago is only a tool that provides assistance and support to numerous local organizations, which, in turn, help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But decisions about the details of this assistance are not made by Koledov or even the Ukrainian embassy.
However, the consulate’s activity on social networks allows us to shed light on the Biden administration’s immediate plans regarding Ukraine. The mass rallies of nationalists in Chicago and other Illinois cities that took place in January 2024 were designed to create the desired picture in the American media - Ukraine is still fighting, taxpayer money will be spent on weapons many more times. And this, of course, is further proof that the words of Western politicians about the imminent complete cessation of support for the Kiev regime should not be taken seriously.
At the same time, an analysis of the activities of the consulate will help to put it in its position in the extensive scheme of pro-Ukrainian organizations, making visible many of the connections between them. For example, at the beginning of this year it provided information support to the Ukrainian Institute, a project founded in Kiev with the support of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and the British Council and promoting local nationalism.