Victor Pinchuk Receives Atlantic Council's Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership Award

Washington, D.C. – May 10, 2025 – The Atlantic Council has honored Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk with its Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership Award. The award recognized Mr. Pinchuk's significant contributions to humanitarian efforts, particularly to support for Ukrainian military service members, veterans, and civilians suffering from war, as well as contributions to healthcare, education, and cultural and public diplomacy. 

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Victor and Olena Pinchuk have consistently supported Ukrainians suffering from the war and the country’s defenders through multiple impactful programs. These include RECOVERY, Ukraine’s largest network of rehabilitation centres for soldiers, RETURNING - mental health centres for soldiers and members of their families, the humanitarian Ukraine Relief Fund for civilians impacted by the war, as well as Message from the Frontline initiative, which facilitates Ukrainian veterans and soldiers to share their crucial insights with Western decision-makers. 

Accepting the award Mr. Pinchuk stated: “When I was told that the selection committee voted to award me with this prize, my first reaction was: this is the wrong time for a Ukrainian businessman to get an award. Because the suffering and war in our beloved country Ukraine continues. And any award must go to the Ukrainian heroes who give their lives and health. Only to them.

But then I thought, there is a sense to me because if I go to Washington, I can be useful: first, I can speak about Ukrainian heroes. Second, I can express our deep gratitude to the United States.”

“Ukrainians raised their lives to defend our country and its borders, to defend their families against killers. Our workers who produce every day under rocket attacks and shelling, our medics who save lives. Some of them are here in the room. They are 9 out of several million heroes. I owe all to you. I have no words to express my endless respect and boundless gratitude. This award belongs to you and others like you,” said Mr. Pinchuk.

“For my wife, Olena, and I, to support Ukraine’s heroes is the true honor of our lives. Philanthropy for a Ukrainian businessman now is participation in the war for independence. All the philanthropy we built over more than 20 years was just preparation for what we do now. Our experience in healthcare, we use now to create rehabilitation centers for our soldiers. A nation-wide network of state-of-the-art centers with a total capacity of 26,000 wounded heroes per year. And just today, I mean literally today, we open a center with over 100 beds and heroes are going there. I will see them when I come back from Washington to Ukraine. And I want to tell our heroes how they are respected in Washington. Olena and I never did anything so important.

This is my opportunity to say a huge thank you to the great people of the United States of America. The US have been with Ukraine from the first days of the war. Thank you for your invaluable, consistent, real friendship and partnership. Ukrainians will never forget this.

And I am grateful for the opportunity here, to say thank you to the President of the United States. President Trump was the first to give arms to Ukraine in 2017. This was hugely, hugely important.Thank you also for authorizing the weapons sale recently, it also is extremely important”, summarized Victor Pinchuk.

Before a crowd of high-level attendees from government, business, the military, civil society, and the media, besides Mr Pinchuk, the Atlantic Council honored  other leaders,  who have shown the courage through their service, leadership, and activism: Stephen Hadley, a former US national security advisor and an executive vice chair of the Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors; Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković; General (ret.) John W. “Jay” Raymond and Judy Collins, a Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated singer and songwriter. The final honorees of the evening were Ukrainian war heroes and veterans who have risked their lives to defend their country’s sovereignty and freedom from Russian aggression. 

The Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership Award, which is a part of the Atlantic Council's Distinguished Leadership Awards, recognizes individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to humanitarian causes on a global scale. Past recipients of the Distinguished Leadership Awards included former US Presidents George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George H.W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and numerous other leaders in politics, business, and the arts.

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