[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




 
                       THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL


                        HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE TO


                      RUSSIA'S INVASION OF UKRAINE

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                   SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY

                                 OF THE

                   COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM

                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                             JUNE 10, 2022

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-85

                               __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
      
      
      
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]       


                       Available on: govinfo.gov,
                         oversight.house.gov or
                             docs.house.gov
                             
                             
                            ______                       


             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
47-804PDF           WASHINGTON : 2022 
                              
                             
                             
                             
                   COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM

                CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman

Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of   James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking 
    Columbia                             Minority Member
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts      Jim Jordan, Ohio
Jim Cooper, Tennessee                Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia         Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois        Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Jamie Raskin, Maryland               Michael Cloud, Texas
Ro Khanna, California                Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland               Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York   Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan              Pete Sessions, Texas
Katie Porter, California             Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Cori Bush, Missouri                  Andy Biggs, Arizona
Shontel M. Brown, Ohio               Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Danny K. Davis, Illinois             Nancy Mace, South Carolina
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida    Scott Franklin, Florida
Peter Welch, Vermont                 Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr.,      Pat Fallon, Texas
    Georgia                          Yvette Herrell, New Mexico
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland           Byron Donalds, Florida
Jackie Speier, California            Vacancy
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Mark DeSaulnier, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts

                      Russ Anello, Staff Director
                       Daniel Rebnord, Team Lead
                    Amy Stratton, Deputy Chief Clerk
                      Contact Number: 202-225-5051

                  Mark Marin, Minority Staff Director
                                 ------                                

                   Subcommittee on National Security

               Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts, Chairman
Peter Welch, Vermont                 Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin, Ranking 
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr.,          Minority Member
    Georgia                          Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Mark DeSaulnier, California          Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland               Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida    Vacancy
Jackie Speier, California

                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on June 10, 2022....................................     1

                               Witnesses

PANEL 1

Jose Andres, Founder and Chief Feeding Officer, World Central 
  Kitchen
Oral Statement...................................................     5

PANEL 2

Christopher Stokes, Emergency Coordinator for Ukraine, Medecins 
  Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders
Oral Statement...................................................    17

Amanda Catanzano, Acting Vice President for Global Policy and 
  Advocacy, International Rescue Committee
Oral Statement...................................................    19

Pete Walsh, Country Director for Ukraine, Save the Children
Oral Statement...................................................    21

  * Written opening statements and statements for the witnesses 
  are available at: docs.house.gov.

                           Index of Documents

                              ----------                              

No additional documents were entered into the record for this 
  hearing.


                       THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL



                        HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE TO



                      RUSSIA'S INVASION OF UKRAINE

                              ----------                              


                         Friday, June 10, 2022

                   House of Representatives
          Subcommittee on National Security
                          Committee on Oversight and Reform
                                                   Washington, D.C.

    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:10 a.m., via 
Zoom, Hon. Stephen F. Lynch (chairman of the subcommittee) 
presiding.
    Present: Representatives Lynch, Welch, Johnson, DeSaulnier, 
Grothman, and Foxx.
    Mr. Lynch. The subcommittee will now come to order.
    Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the subcommittee at any time.
    I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
    Good morning, everyone.
    Good morning, Chef Andres. Good to see you.
    Now in its fourth month, Russian President Vladimir Putin's 
unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine has taken a 
devastating toll on the Ukraine people. This unjust war of 
aggression has resulted in the tragic loss of thousands of 
innocent lives and precipitated a grave humanitarian crisis 
that is already having cascading effects in areas of the world 
far beyond Ukraine's borders, such as Syria, Yemen, and 
Somalia.
    Nearly 14 million people, roughly one-third of Ukraine's 
entire population, have been forcibly displaced from their 
homes during more than 100 days of war. The United Nations 
Office of High Commissioner for Refugees reports that we are 
witnessing, quote, ``the largest displacement crisis in the 
world today,'' with over 7 million people displaced within 
Ukraine and more than 6.5 million refugees fleeing to Poland, 
Romania, and Moldova and other neighboring countries.
    Within Ukraine, UNHCR estimates that 15.7 million people 
urgently require humanitarian assistance, including food, 
water, medicine, and hygienic supplies. An estimated one in 
three Ukrainian households is currently food-insecure. And 
thanks to the extraordinary work of international humanitarian 
organizations such as World Central Kitchen, Doctors Without 
Borders, Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee, 
and Samaritan's Purse, aid is fortunately making its way into 
Ukraine.
    That task is complicated, however, and made more dangerous 
by indiscriminate violence and shelling of civilian areas and 
key infrastructure nodes. As Russia shifts its military 
objectives toward eastern Ukraine, the international 
humanitarian community may only be beginning to understand the 
full extent of destruction and suffering the Russian military 
has left in their wake.
    The deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Ukraine have 
also had a compounding impact on Ukrainian women and girls, who 
face the heightened risk of sexual exploitation and conflict 
related to sexual and gender-based violence.
    In March, I had the honor to lead a bipartisan delegation 
to Poland, Romania, and Moldova and multiple Ukrainian border 
points to conduct oversight of the delivery of U.S. and 
international security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. 
And we had the opportunity to observe firsthand the generosity 
of the Polish, Romanian, and Moldovan people, who have welcomed 
Ukrainian refugees into their homes.
    Our meeting with Ukrainian and other Eastern European 
officials and civil-society organization repeatedly underscored 
that, absent continued assistance from the international 
community, our ability to provide relief and support services 
for the people of Ukraine may soon reach capacity.
    Our delegation also visited a World Central Kitchen relief 
site located near Przemy?l border crossing on the Polish-
Ukraine border, where Chef Jose Andres and his colleagues are 
preparing and distributing as many as 100,000 meals per day to 
Ukrainian families in need.
    In steadfast and continued support of the Ukrainian people, 
the U.S. Congress recently enacted a bipartisan aid package to 
provide $40 billion in security and humanitarian assistance to 
Ukraine. I'm grateful that the legislation included $9 billion 
in direct economic assistance for Ukraine as well as additional 
funding for refugee support programs and global emergency food 
relief.
    I also commend President Biden and his administration for 
leading the world in near-unanimous solidarity with the people 
of Ukraine and mobilizing an unprecedented humanitarian 
response to the conflict.
    I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about 
their experience and of their organizations' experience on the 
ground in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and whether there are ways 
the international humanitarian response can be improved.
    Before I conclude, I'd like to personally thank our 
witnesses for their testimony today and, more importantly, for 
the truly heroic work they and their organizations are doing, 
not only in Ukraine but around the world.
    With that, I will now yield to the distinguished ranking 
member of our subcommittee, Mr. Grothman of Wisconsin.
    Mr. Grothman. Thank you.
    First of all, Chairman Lynch, I'd like to thank you for 
holding this hearing, and I'd like to thank our witnesses for 
showing up today--virtually, anyway. They're virtually with us 
today.
    I know that each of you has devoted a significant amount of 
your time to assisting not only the Ukrainians impacted by 
Russia's aggression but also the Poles, Romanians, Moldovans, 
and others that have stepped up to help those fleeing the war. 
And if I'm not mistaken, each one of you has visited Ukraine 
since the war began. You have our utmost gratitude for this 
tireless and sometimes thankless work.
    We've surpassed 100 days of Russia's war on Ukraine, a war 
that was predicted to last 72 hours. Weapons and military 
equipment are essential, but without food, clean drinking 
water, and medical supplies, Ukrainians would be in a much 
worse position than they are today. The will and fight of 
Ukrainians is bolstered by much of the work that we will 
discuss here today.
    Congress has appropriated billions of dollars toward 
humanitarian assistance, but groups like those here today fill 
the gaps. You know where the assistance is needed, you know the 
delivery routes, and you know the local people. This knowledge 
is essential.
    You all are not only fighting to get aid where it is 
needed, but you are truly on the front lines of the fight. 
Russia is afraid of you because of what you stand for: freedom.
    Russia has attacked humanitarian corridors and used cease-
fire negotiations as a tool to kill civilians. They have 
attacked fleeing refugees. They have attacked hospitals and 
medical centers. And they have deliberately targeted 
humanitarian sites, including one of Chef Andres' World Central 
Kitchen restaurants in Kharkiv.
    The United Nations now estimates the civilian death toll to 
have surpassed 4,000, but there is no doubt this is an 
undercount. Russia and President Putin have and continue to 
commit war crimes.
    I applaud your hard work and urge you to continue 
supporting Ukraine and its neighboring nations. Whenever this 
war finally ends--and we all hope it is soon--the fight will 
not be over. Ukraine will need all of our help to rebuild and 
restore.
    I look forward to hearing your stories and how we can 
further facilitate your efforts.
    Thank you, and I yield back.
    Mr. Lynch. I thank the gentleman.
    Now I'd like to recognize the full committee chairwoman, 
the gentlelady from New York, Mrs. Maloney, for a brief opening 
statement. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking 
Member, for your continued focus on the humanitarian crisis in 
Eastern Europe that Vladimir Putin has caused with his illegal 
and brutal war against Ukraine.
    For more than three months, Russian forces have carried out 
a campaign of terror against the Ukrainian people. They have 
indiscriminately targeted and killed thousands of innocent 
civilians, destroyed Ukrainian schools and hospitals, brought 
Ukraine's farmlands to ruin, and decimated entire cities.
    Throughout it all, the Ukrainian people, led by President 
Zelenskyy, and with the support of the United States and our 
allies, have stood strong against Putin's aggression. Even so, 
the war has had devastating humanitarian impacts and left many 
Ukrainians without access to food, water, fuel, shelter, and 
medical care.
    Suffering most acutely are the innocent families, women and 
children, of Ukraine, who have become targets in Putin's war. 
Already, the United Nations has confirmed that thousands of 
women and children have been killed or wounded during the 
Russian assault. Tragically, the true number is likely 
significantly higher.
    Credible reports have also found that Russian troops in 
Ukraine have engaged in serious war crimes, including revenge 
killings, mass murders, and sexual violence against women.
    Five months ago, the people of Ukraine were going about 
their daily lives--working, going to cafes and restaurants, and 
coming home at night to tuck their children into bed. Today, 
those same families are living through a much harsher reality, 
one they likely will never fully recover from, and many may not 
survive.
    Those are the life-and-death stakes of Vladimir Putin's war 
in Ukraine and why I am grateful that we have a chance today to 
hear from some of the heroes who are literally on the front 
lines providing vulnerable communities with the critical 
lifesaving support that they so desperately need.
    Recent reports indicate that, although Vladimir Putin has 
shifted his military objective to eastern and southern Ukraine, 
there is still no end to this war in sight. Given everything 
that the Ukrainian people will need to defend their homeland, I 
was pleased that Congress was able to come together recently on 
a bipartisan basis to pass a bill that would provide $40 
billion in additional security, economic, and humanitarian aid 
to respond to the conflict.
    Moving forward, it will be critical for Congress to work 
with the Biden administration to efficiently distribute 
humanitarian aid and continue to unite our allies in support of 
the Ukrainian people. I look forward to hearing from our 
witnesses today about how best to use U.S. taxpayer dollars to 
address Ukraine's most urgent humanitarian needs.
    Thank you again for your leadership, Mr. Chairman. I yield 
back.
    Mr. Lynch. I thank the gentlelady, and we deeply appreciate 
her leadership on this issue.
    Now I'd like to introduce our first witnesses.
    Our first witness today is Mr. Jose Andres, the founder and 
chief feeding officer of World Central Kitchen. Chef Andres is 
a renowned chef who founded World Central Kitchen in 2010 to 
provide food relief to areas that have experienced natural 
disasters and other crises. Since then, World Central Kitchen 
has responded around the world to feed communities in need, 
including Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, several cities in the 
United States, and now Ukraine.
    The witness will be unmuted so that we can now swear in Mr. 
Andres.
    Mr. Andres, please raise your right hand.
    Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to 
give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
so help you God?
    Mr. Andres. I swear.
    Mr. Lynch. Let the record reflect that the witness has 
answered in the affirmative.
    Thank you. And, without objection, your written statement 
will be made part of the record.
    With that, Chef Andres, you are now recognized for your 
testimony.

 STATEMENT OF JOSE ANDRES, FOUNDER AND CHIEF FEEDING OFFICER, 
                     WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN

    Mr. Andres. So, Chairman Lynch, Ranking Member Grothman, 
and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me here 
today.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for visiting the commercial 
kitchen we built from scratch near the Polish border during the 
early days of the war.
    World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit I founded more than a 
decade ago, specializes in feeding communities after natural 
and manmade disasters. We are unique in how we work and the aid 
we provide. We work with the fierce urgency of now, because 
when you are hungry or thirsty, you are hungry or thirsty 
today, not tomorrow.
    We believe in the power of food to rebuild lives, 
communities, and jobs. A plate of food is a plate of hope. A 
dollar spent locally on feeding is a dollar that multiplies 
throughout the local economy. Unlike other aid organizations, 
we buy local food. And we trust local people to feed local 
people, with their real-time intelligence, passion, and 
expertise.
    That's how Ukrainians are feeding Ukraine, with the support 
of World Central Kitchen. We started serving hot meals one day 
after the war began at Poland-Ukraine border, where refugees on 
foot were fleeing with whatever they could carry. We rapidly 
extended into Ukraine and across all border crossings not 
controlled by Russia.
    At the peak of the refugee flows across the borders, there 
was not real presence from the U.N. system. We assumed the big 
guys would show up in a couple of days, but it took weeks for 
them to establish any presence.
    And then I saw empty UNHCR or UNICEF tents, with nothing or 
nobody inside, as children were walking alone across the 
border, with the phone of their mothers printed in the palm of 
their hands. These children were just left alone at the mercy 
of good Samaritans.
    Today, a week after the 100-day mark of this war, we have 
distributed more than 40 million meals to more than 475 cities 
in the region. We are working with almost 500 restaurants, food 
trucks, and catering companies in 8 countries.
    We have 42 warehouses. In many of them, we make food bags, 
where more than 30,000 bags a day are distributed on top of the 
hot meals. Some situations require hot, already-cooked meals, 
while others need ingredients. Some people can cook and feed 
themselves.
    When you consider all the meals being cooked by World 
Central Kitchen teams, our partners, and people at home, I 
believe we are almost doing a million meals a day right now.
    The U.S. Congress, on behalf of the American people, has 
been exceptionally generous with providing funding. These funds 
are vital for the Ukrainian people, as well as the people 
around the world who rely on Ukrainian farmers.
    However, I must tell you that your work is not done. It's 
never done. There are structural reasons why established 
international aid groups took so long to have a presence in 
Ukrainian. Those reasons will not change with billions of 
dollars.
    Large quantities of unwanted food are being delivered today 
with little regard for what the people of Ukraine can or want 
to eat. There is only so much dried pasta a Ukrainian family 
needs.
    We have tried repeatedly to work with the World Food 
Program, but the U.N. teams remained way too often outside 
Ukraine for weeks and weeks instead of activating local teams 
inside the country.
    With boots on the ground, we know exactly where the need 
is. We talk to the community every day. We work next to the 
community. I am afraid that we are even at risk of duplicating 
efforts and spending and throwing money at the problem.
    Let's be clear: Ukraine can feed itself, but they are at 
war. Millions are displaced. Infrastructure is damaged. Bridges 
and roads are damaged. Electricity outages. What World Central 
Kitchen does is helping reestablish in an emergency the system 
of food flows.
    We buy local when we can, all the time. It is telling that 
World Food Program is bringing food into Ukraine when at the 
same time World Food Program is saying it needs food to export 
from Ukraine to feed other countries. It doesn't make sense. 
When you don't have real boots on the ground, your decisions 
are often not the right ones.
    The current system just does not work when people are 
starving and thirsty in a crisis. We need a more agile and 
effective system to deliver aid. That means reforming approval 
processes, cutting red tape, and rethinking contracting rules.
    I hope and your staff will work with us on changes that can 
address these concerns. USAID has an incredible mission and 
dedicated staff. They can be even more effective with some 
additional authorities and flexibilities to help much more 
quickly.
    Thank you for your time and attention and including me in 
this very important hearing. I look forward now to answering 
any questions you may have.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Chef. That was very, very 
instructive, and that's exactly the type of information we want 
to hear. We see all the good work, but, behind the scenes, we 
don't have to grapple with the bureaucratic difficulties that 
you've just described.
    So let me just say I'm not surprised because of the--I 
think the situation here is extraordinary and we were not 
prepared for it. However, with your help, with the help of the 
private sector, with the advice of people who are actually 
doing the work, I think we can make the adjustments that you 
recommend.
    Chef Andres, as you noted, I did lead a bipartisan 
congressional delegation to Poland--three Democrats, three 
Republicans. And I'm thankful for the participation of my 
Republican colleagues. We went to Moldova, Poland, and Romania 
to observe the refugee situation in the region since the 
Russians launched its invasion earlier this year.
    While in Poland, we did have the opportunity and pleasure 
of visiting one of your World Central Kitchen meal preparations 
sites in Przemy?l, near the Ukrainian border. Your staff, 
including Jason Collis and Anna Bornstein, were gracious and 
took the time to show us the mechanics about how the logistics 
were working there to get the ingredients in, to prepare them, 
and then to in some cases ship them into Ukraine, in other 
cases take care of people who were fleeing that country, that 
war zone.
    All of us were impressed by the dedication of your 
organization and World Central Kitchen's employees and 
volunteers. I want to thank you and your staff for all of the 
efforts to serve and feed the people of Ukraine. It really is 
heroic.
    Chef Andres, you and your team have spent a significant 
amount of time in Ukraine since Russia began the invasion in 
February. In your testimony, you stated, quote, that ``with our 
boots on the ground, we know exactly where the need is in 
Ukraine.''
    I want to tap into that a little bit, on-the-ground 
knowledge. Can you describe some of what you've seen in your 
time in Ukraine? And what has struck you most about the 
conflict and the difficulty that we are experiencing in getting 
meals, getting food to the Ukrainian people, and getting the 
food that they need? That's the important part.
    Can you drill down on that a bit? It might help us in 
making recommendations to the agencies that are making those 
decisions.
    Mr. Andres. Thank you.
    Right now, we are serving--there's different realities in 
Ukraine, and there's not one plan that solves the different 
situations. Let's see if I'm able to explain myself.
    We are--you mentioned that these--over 12, 13 million 
people, between refugees and displaced people, within Ukraine. 
With so many people out of their cities, out of their 
workplaces, out of their cities, one of the main problems is 
that the normal social functions of the economy are broken.
    So it's very important that ``emergency'' means that we are 
there, coming to the outside, as people are fleeing the war, 
that organizations like ours will go to try to repair, 
temporarily, those systems of distribution. I always say that 
we are not really cooks; what we are is people that try to put 
the logistics and the distribution, so people get the access 
they need.
    So, right now, we are in more than 1,410 shelters. We have 
been in so many for almost 80, 90 days at that number, so we 
know very well the situation of the shelters. Some of them are 
official, meaning run by the country or by the local state or 
the city. Others are just shelters that just happen on their 
own, by people that open their home or their restaurant or 
their school, and just happen.
    Those places, sometimes they have so many people living in 
them that they will not have a proper kitchen to feed so many 
people every day. So those places, we will need to give them 
hot meals to simplify the process of feeding such a high 
quantity of people.
    And we use the local infrastructure. Who is the best to 
feed people? Restaurants and chefs. So we use local 
restaurants, channeling the money that the American people has 
been supporting us with. We are 100-percent private financial--
every dollar we spend in Ukraine comes from mainly Americans 
and other people around the world.
    We empower the local restaurant community, who know their 
communities well. And we use those restaurants to cover the 
needs of those shelters, not only in Ukraine but also in the 
other countries surrounding Ukraine.
    But then there's other places, like north of Kyiv. I was, 
on April 1, in Bucha. This was within hours of the Ukrainian 
Army defending their country, taking over and start putting 
out--moving north and putting out the Russian troops. There we 
began arriving with hot food.
    But I went to Bucha recently, many weeks after, and the 
situation has changed dramatically. Some supermarkets has 
opened in the cities like Bucha and Irpin and Hostomel and 
Borodyanka, but there's people without jobs, there's people 
that still are in shelters.
    In those places, we keep bringing hot meals, but now in 
rural areas we realize that the absence of infrastructure, 
because the bridges are broken, or other reasons--they don't 
have enough labor to reopen those supermarkets--we are bringing 
bags of food that are roughly 15 kilos each, that equal around 
20, 25 meals each, that we will deliver in those communities 
north of Kyiv every single week, once a week, to the hour, in 
every location, covering the lack of infrastructure and 
supermarkets.
    This is two of the ways we've been doing it, on top of 
using the same trips to do two things: bring seeds to big 
farmers that, where because lack of funding or where because 
lack of infrastructure, needed somebody to help them with 
seeds, like some flour and corn and wheat; but, also, there's 
many Ukrainians that, in front of their homes in the rural 
areas all across Ukraine--and now I've been almost all around 
Ukraine twice, three times--they will plant in front of their 
homes. And you can see right now every single home planted with 
food that will be able to provide for those families in August, 
September.
    For us, to do the hot meals, to do the bags of food for 
families, and then to be able to be giving seeds that they will 
convert into food that technically is like giving them money is 
the three ways I believe the Ukrainian people in the short, 
mid, and long term are going to be needing our help until this 
war stops.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you very much.
    My time has expired, but I would like to recognize my 
distinguished friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. 
Grothman, for any statements, any questions he might have. The 
gentleman is recognized.
    You'll have to unmute, though.
    Mr. Grothman. OK.
    Thank you again, Chef Andres, for being here.
    Obviously, this affects the food supply of both the Ukraine 
and globally. Have you seen Russia take any actions that you 
think are specifically designed to affect the import or export 
of food?
    Mr. Andres. Obviously, I have not seen them--physically 
seen any Russian stealing, but I've seen--I arrived to Ukraine 
on my last trip by boat. I went the Danube River from Romania 
up to Izmail, and I was able to experience firsthand all the 
difficulties that Ukraine is having maybe to import goods and 
to import food but also, more important, to export grains.
    We know, I know, that this is because we see the boat 
blockade. I've been in Odessa. We've been with the Governor of 
Odessa, the mayor of Odessa. We've seen missiles been hitting 
Odessa's infrastructure continuously, Mykolaiv, hitting the 
ports.
    We understand that when they keep hitting grain silos, when 
they keep hitting train stations that are vital to be moving 
grain inside Ukraine and outside Ukraine, when they keep 
hitting ports directly, they are doing a huge damage not only 
for Ukrainians to feed themselves, but we know that they are 
doing a huge damage to the more than 400 million people that we 
know the grain that Ukraine produces is able to feed.
    So these are the ways obviously I've seen how Russia, in a 
way, very directly, is using this war to put an extra pressure 
around the world by creating famines in places that we should 
not have.
    Mr. Grothman. OK.
    Are there specific areas of Ukraine where people are--
finding food is more difficult than others? Are there specific 
areas that you feel we really have a crisis in?
    Mr. Andres. Obviously, in the places that the Russian 
troops kind of control for a period of time and then they left, 
they created a lot of destruction. I've seen myself in places 
like north of Kyiv or in other cities I mentioned before, in 
Bucha and Irpin, the destruction there was real. Chernihiv, 
Kharkiv, where we are very active.
    We are in Kramatorsk, where one missile hit in the train 
station, with more than 3,000 children and women waiting to 
escape the horrors of war, and where, nearby, we were feeding 
the people that were waiting for those trains that they're 
vital to put them out.
    Obviously, in the south--I was in Zaporizhzhia not too long 
ago and Mykolaiv, only 25 kilometers--those cities are 25 
kilometers away from the front lines. In the moment you go and 
you get closer, within 5, 4, 3 kilometers, and you can sense 
even more what the war is doing to those communities that they 
are living there.
    And many people are going to say, why the people don't 
leave? When you have elderly people that they are sick and they 
cannot move and the country's at war and there's nobody wants 
to, can move them or they don't want to leave because they feel 
they are too poor or too tired and the only thing they have is 
that little house they worked all their life--those are the 
places that this is becoming very difficult.
    We are listening. I was with the mayor of Mariupol only a 
few days ago. And obviously we understand the destruction in 
the city of Mariupol, but now we know that the city of Mariupol 
is going through a very big food and water crisis, with cholera 
cases increasing every day, with lack of food that Russians are 
not providing, with lack of clean water that Russians are not 
providing.
    Those are the areas that obviously we're going to need U.S. 
and international community to put pressure, to make sure that 
we can also, even in the middle of the war, we can come in with 
humanitarian aid to make sure that those people, those 
populations are not going thirsty, are not going hungry, or, 
even worse, are not dying because of cholera and other 
situations because of the unhealthy conditions.
    Mr. Grothman. You must, therefore, talk to people who were 
in a Russian-occupied area even though maybe the Russians are 
pushed out now. How does Russia treat the people when they are 
occupying their area?
    Mr. Andres. I mentioned before I was in Bucha April 1 and 
April 2, and I think we all saw the horrors of the photos. I 
know what I saw with my own eyes. And obviously I have spoken 
with hundreds, if not thousands, of people that sometimes the 
only thing they wanted was a hat.
    The treatment of the Russian troops, in the times there was 
interaction--I will tell you stories and even things I could 
say I saw with my own eyes, of people that were shot from the 
back in their head only because they dared to leave their home 
just to try to pick up a loaf of bread if a bakery was still 
baking. Just a very simple thing of trying to feed your family 
became just an act of heroism.
    So obviously the stories are horrific in more ways than 
one, of shootings that they didn't need to happen; of civilians 
that they didn't need to die; of bombings of the schools when 
families were trying to escape the horrors of war; where cars, 
which I saw with my own eyes, cars that they had very clearly 
the name of children in the top and in every side and the back 
of the cars. Those cars were totally full of holes that you 
could argue those were shots, that Russian troops kept shooting 
at when just people were trying to go to the safety of their 
homes.
    What I saw in those early days in the north of Kyiv, Bucha 
and Irpin, this is something obviously I'll never forget in my 
life.
    But the horrors are real, the horrors happened. And that's 
why it's very important we are there next to those people, 
making sure that, in this case, food and water is not another 
one of the many problems they are going to be facing in the 
weeks and months ahead.
    Mr. Grothman. OK.
    Are there any specific sorts of foods that you have a 
shortage of or that there is a shortage of?
    Mr. Andres. Well, in certain--I want to make sure that the 
Ukrainian Government is doing an amazing job--the Ukrainian 
Governorst, the Ukrainian people. You are going to say, why 
would Central Kitchenneed to be there or why we need to be 
helping them? Obviously because they are at war, and we know 
that war is a very chaotic situation.
    We are trying to reopen some factories. We are trying to 
tell somebody, if you reopen these pasta factories, a country 
that what they have is a lot of wheat, we buy all the pasta 
from you. And things like this are happening.
    Kherson that right now is under Russian occupation and has 
been under war, all that area south going east, we all know 
that they are big producers of things, for example, like 
onions, like tomatoes, et cetera, et cetera. Without those 
farmers having a normal farming season, those foods are going 
to be scarce.
    You could say, ``But we can feed the world without 
onions.'' Yes, totally agree. But World Central Kitchen does is 
just making sure that we use every single resource we have at 
our fingertips. We are bringing from the outside things that, 
because of war, are highly limited inside Ukraine, like America 
will import a lot of foods that for some reason America is not 
able to produce.
    But, overall, I would say that Ukraine is fine. We need to 
understand that the best way America and the international 
community can be helping Ukraine is not by bringing everything 
from the outside, but it is making sure that we keep supporting 
the local economy, the local infrastructure, investing the 
money locally, creating jobs locally.
    That will give Ukraine--in the fighting for the freedom of 
their country, make sure that we invest into the solution, 
making sure that the entire economy doesn't collapse. That is 
what World Central Kitchen is doing, supporting restaurants, 
buying from local farmers, buying from local factories, that 
they can produce the foods that the people need.
    Mr. Grothman. Thank you.
    Mr. Lynch. The gentleman's time has expired.
    The chair now recognizes the full committee chairwoman, 
Mrs. Maloney, for five minutes for her questions. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much, Chef Andres, for 
being with us this morning and for everything you and your team 
have done for the Ukrainian people and around the world to help 
other disaster victims.
    In your advocacy for the vulnerable people that you serve, 
you have criticized how difficult it is for the international 
community to respond and that it's often too slow. And in a 
tweet you posted to celebrate President Biden's signing of a 
bill granting $40 billion in assistance to Ukraine, you said 
that the Ukrainian people, quote, ``can't wait months,'' 
unquote, for help to arrive, and I agree completely.
    So what lessons have you learned during previous disasters 
that would let us help Ukrainians faster and more efficiently 
than we have today?
    Mr. Andres. I think that big problems have very simple 
solutions, and sometimes we overcomplicate things.
    I think--well, we went in. We created a big team. We have 
more than 4-, 5,000 people in our network of people that are 
working with World Central Kitchen, that this is what allows us 
to be fast and adapting.
    Adapting is when we made those bags that we sent to the 
communities--because we go every day. I mean, I've been there 
more than 50, 55 days of my life. I've been 106 days in this 
crisis, but I've been inside Ukraine, especially the early 
days, but, again, I just came back 3, 4 days ago after another 
round of 12 days. By being there in real-time, you are able 
just to adapt in real-time. If somebody is telling you, ``Hey, 
Jose, another organization just brought a lot of pasta; we've 
got pasta for two months,'' we are able the next week to take 
any pasta we had in those packages and redeliver maybe with 
more fruits and vegetables, increasing the output of fruits and 
vegetables. And more often than not, we are buying local.
    But now what I would say is that, for food, World Central 
Kitchen, we are with 3,970 distribution points, 3,900 
distribution points. With this I only want to say, quite 
frankly, very humbly, but at the same time very proud, that we 
know what's going on. We know what the people need. Because we 
are talking with them every single day.
    So, for food, what I would say is that now I'm afraid that 
we are going to be multiplying efforts by now more 
organizations finally arriving and everybody bringing food 
because they are doing something. And sometimes I would say 
that more doesn't equal better. The right amount equals better. 
Because we cannot collapse the local economies by giving too 
much food for free at the same time.
    We need to be very specific. I've been talking to mayors, 
like in Mykolaiv, that their concern was, how do we know that 
we are not breaking and collapsing the local economy? Well, you 
could argue, too, that those mayors need to know that their 
people are out of jobs and sometimes banks are not open or 
sometimes people don't have an ATM so they need cash or--so 
that's what we are covering.
    But it's very important that the solutions and the actions 
don't happen--you don't make a decision today for six months 
from now, but that you in emergencies are, day to day, 
assessing the situation so you know when the people need the 
help and you know when you need to start moving out.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Well, since the war began more than 
three months ago, have you observed any improvements? And what 
obstacles remain?
    Mr. Andres. Well, improvements, there have been many. In 
all the cities that they've been reconquered by the Ukrainian 
troops and the Ukrainian Government, like in Irpin and Bucha, 
supermarkets are open again. Some of those bridges are already 
fixed. Life seems, in many parts of Kyiv, back to normal.
    But, then, in that same city, they have hundreds of 
thousands, if not millions, of people that are displaced, 
living in different refugee camps. Those are the challenges. 
The challenges is that those people are going to need our help. 
I mean, again, it's close to 14 million people, between 
displaced internally in Ukraine and refugees outside Ukraine. 
Many of those people are going to be needing all the help they 
can get.
    And we're going to have to be creative. Do we give them 
cards so they can buy their own food? Maybe that's another 
great idea. I know World Food Program is trying to put that 
program already for a few weeks.
    So, the challenges we are facing is adapting to the 
situation as cities are being retaken by the Ukrainian 
Government, going very quickly in those cities to provide very 
quick support with food and water to those communities, but 
then watching closely so we can keep adapting as this war 
progresses. Because the solutions of today will not be the same 
ones that the people need a month from now. So, it's imperative 
that the solutions given are always reestablished in the weeks 
ahead.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Well, my final question is that we 
prioritize, on this committee, ensuring that taxpayers' dollars 
are being spent responsibly, in a way that Congress intended. 
Sometimes the bureaucracy can get in the way.
    Mr. Andres, what specifically could the U.S. do to help 
improve how humanitarian aid is being delivered, while still 
ensuring assistance is going where it is most needed?
    Mr. Andres. So, World Central Kitchen right now is fully 
funded for this operation with private money from Americans, 
individuals, some foundations. We are spending between $1.5 
million and $2.5 million, $3 million a day. It depends on the 
day; it's not the same on Monday than on Sunday. It's not the 
same the day we are filling up our warehouses than the Sunday 
that maybe we don't have the trains or the buses or the trucks 
delivering.
    But I do believe that it's very important that we don't 
double up and that also we move quick in establishing those 
funds. I come from the private sector. I don't work for World 
Central Kitchen. I'm just the founder and I am a volunteer of 
World Central Kitchen. What we need to be trying to make sure 
is that the decisions, that they are already proven, that are 
working on the ground, that are supported. Don't try to just to 
support new things or new NGO's that want to come and establish 
themselves over 100 days later, when they didn't have real 
knowledge of what was going on in the war in the early days.
    So, this is going to be very important. I don't believe 
that we can work by committee. Sometimes, with all due respect, 
especially in emergencies and especially with food, when you 
work by committee, that means that everybody's in charge. When 
everybody's in charge, it means that nobody's in charge. And, 
therefore, you keep throwing money at the problem.
    I do believe that World Central Kitchen has proven itself, 
that has done a very quick, fast, and effective job to be in 
those places and adapting to the situation, throwing out the 
plans and adapting day to day.
    I do believe that the great people of USAID--I know many of 
them. I've been with Ambassador Power on the ground in Poland 
and other places. I do believe what they need to do is just 
change the way they are able to make the decisions to what 
organizations they support and how quickly that money can be 
flowing.
    Big problems have very simple solutions. We are--this is 
not my organization. This is not World Central Kitchen's 
organization. This is an organization, actually, of the 
American people and, I could argue, an organization of the 
people of world. We are here to be your organization to bring 
quick and fast delivery of food humanitarian assistance in the 
middle of a war in this case. It's our first time, but the 
lessons in the last 107 days, they've been big. We've done our 
master's. We've proven that we can be adapting quicker and 
faster than anybody.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. And we in Congress continue 
to work to ensure Ukraine has the security and humanitarian 
assistance it needs to defend against Russia's illegal war, we 
must always push to get that assistance out the door as quickly 
and as responsibly as possible. You are doing a fantastic job. 
Thank you so much.
    Mr. Andres. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. I yield back.
    Mr. Lynch. The gentlelady yields back.
    The chair now recognizes the gentlelady from North 
Carolina, Ms. Foxx, for five minutes.
    All right. I think she may have stepped away from her 
screen.
    The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Vermont, Mr. 
Welch, for five minutes for his questions.
    Mr. Welch. Thank you very much, Mr. Lynch, and I also want 
to thank Mr. Grothman for this hearing.
    Chef Andres, it is unusual for us in this committee, 
actually in Congress, to have before us somebody who has a long 
record of success and commitment to addressing hunger issues 
and who has such practical knowledge. There are a couple of 
things that you said I wanted to just give you an opportunity 
to elaborate on.
    No. 1, the buy local, do everything we can do in the effort 
to address the nutrition and hunger issues in Ukraine is 
enhanced, as I hear you, the more we do to rebuild their local 
agricultural economy.
    And then, second, on a practical level, can you just 
describe what the effects of what's happening in Ukraine and 
how that effects both fertilizer production and the export of 
fertilizer in the export of grain to other countries around the 
world? Because I think, as we address the issues of hunger in 
Ukraine, we have to be mindful that what is happening in 
Ukraine is compounding the issues of hunger elsewhere.
    So, I just want to turn this over to you. And, also, I want 
to express to you my gratitude, which I think we all share. 
Thank you.
    Mr. Andres. Thank you very much. And thank you for the 
question.
    I'm not going to use an example of Ukraine, but I'm going 
to be--I've given more than 30 years of my life trying to be 
part of the solution, not only cooking for the few but cooking 
for the many and learning. And I began here in Washington, DC, 
where actually the Senate, over 28 years ago, had a Hunger 
Caucus right at the D.C. Central Kitchen. That's a kitchen I 
was able to work. So, my life learning is not being used in 
universities; I never graduated. It's being used being there 
and watching and listening to experts or learning on my own, 
listening to the people.
    I'm going to give you the example of Haiti. I was very 
proud of how U.S. responded to the Haiti earthquake in 2010. If 
anything, America should be very proud of the aid we gave to 
those citizens in Port-au-Prince. It was a massive aid given, 
and I'm forever--as an American, I was proud to see.
    Other thing is how we use the money and if we were 
effective, but this is going to be life itself. We always need 
to work to try to keep doing more of what we do well and trying 
to improve whatwe didn't do so well.
    But one of the things I really followed fairly closely 
was--I understand a different country, in this case America, is 
giving aid. You will argue that if you are giving food aid, 
that money that is American taxpayer, makes sense that you are 
spending the money to buy from local American farmers. Well, 
frankly, every country probably should do exactly the same. All 
of this is perfectly fine.
    But the issue we have is that, then, in the process of 
trying to help, we don't think in a 360-degree way, and we 
create other problems by America and international community 
giving so much food for free into Haiti in the weeks and months 
after the earthquake.
    In the process, we gave a lot of rice. North end of Port-
au-Prince is an area that is a rice-producing area. Those rice 
producers, nobody was buying the rice from them. Why? Because 
the huge amounts of rice we were giving for free.
    Actually, so much food was being given in Port-au-Prince 
that we created migrations internally to Haiti, because people 
were flowing from places with no food to Port-au-Prince, where 
they were giving you free food. This is a reality, and this 
happened, and I was part of seeing it.
    I can guarantee you, even though I didn't spend any time--
and I know I'm under oath. I'm giving you my honest personal 
opinion by following those things through years. We've been 
feeding Haitians in shelters in Tijuana. Some of these Haitians 
began migrating in 2010 after many of them lost jobs in rural 
areas because they couldn't sell the rice and other food 
products.
    In a way of us helping Haiti, we created other problems by 
not thinking. That is why I'm always suggesting that we need to 
find better balance.
    Mr. Welch. Yes.
    Mr. Andres. If you want to be helping a hungry country, in 
the process of feeding them, we may be already investing and 
having a better migration--having less migration issues in the 
southern border. If we just keep throwing money at the 
problem--that, in this case, is feeding the people that are 
hungry today--but in the process we create other problems that 
then put pressure on the border in the south, with people that 
lost their jobs 10 years before, and there they are, knocking 
on the doors of America, that is why it's one of the many other 
reasons we need to start thinking better of why it's better to 
invest money in those countries we are trying to help versus 
just throwing them so much food that we create problems of 
logistics because the airports and the ports are overwhelmed.
    Again, I mentioned before, it's very absurd to me that 
World Food Program is bringing food into Ukraine when, at the 
same time, World Food Program is saying that we need to find 
ways to export food out of Ukraine. If we have food inside 
Ukraine, why just we don't buy that food?
    And why we don't put the food that World Food Program is 
trying to bring in, send it to Syria, send it to Ethiopia, send 
it to the countries that need the food right now? You are 
solving a lot of logistical----
    Mr. Welch. Thank you.
    Mr. Andres.--problems by not putting more pressure.
    So I think this one is the one I would say is the most 
important.
    And I do believe we need to put factories up and running 
inside Ukraine. The ones that closed at the beginning of--or 
the markets that--anything we can do to open those is better in 
the best national security of Ukraine. In the process of 
helping Ukrainians with humanitarian aid, we are multiplying 
every dollar America may give because we create jobs, we put 
Ukrainians to be able to feed themselves because of logistics.
    But, again, they have the food internally. I've seen the 
silos. Remember, I've been--there's one place inside, I forget 
the name, in the middle of Ukraine; they have a very huge flag. 
They claim it is the center of Ukraine. There is this factory 
we began partnering with. They do seeds. We began helping 
distribute those seeds to the farmers. They didn't have any 
cash, a way to buy it themselves.
    So, again, the logistics is what is important. Ukraine has 
food to feed itself, but we need to remember they are at war. 
It's not a country that's going to have famine for lack of 
food; it's a country that needs our support with logistics and 
spending and investing the money in the right places to make 
sure that food doesn't become a problem.
    Mr. Welch. Thank you very, very much.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Lynch. The gentleman yields back.
    Mr. Welch. Very helpful.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you very much. That was very insightful. 
Great questions and very helpful answer. Thank you.
    The chair now recognizes the gentlelady from North 
Carolina, Ms. Foxx, for five minutes.
    Ms. Foxx. Mr. Chairman, neither I nor my staff understood 
the organization of this panel this morning. I am prepared to 
ask questions of Mr. Graham, but we did not understand how you 
were doing this this morning. In fact, when you started, I 
tried to find out; my staff said, hold off. And so I am 
prepared to ask questions of Mr. Graham.
    I thank Chef Andres for his work and for his insight. And I 
think that he is absolutely right to be talking about how we 
can help build the economy of any country that is in stress 
like this. But I thank him for his work, and I'm ready for the 
next panel.
    Mr. Lynch. OK. I do appreciate that. We did struggle with 
different time zones. Several of our witnesses are in different 
time zones, so we were trying to accommodate everyone.
    But let me just add my thanks to Chef Andres for his great 
work and his testimony here this morning. This was very, very 
helpful.
    If other members have any questions for Chef Andres, we 
will take those into the record, and we will try to deliver 
those to Chef Andres and get further answers on those 
questions.
    Mr. Lynch. But, at this point, I think we will transfer to 
the next panel. I want to excuse Chef Andres and thank him for 
his testimony and his good work.
    God bless you. Please stay safe. I know you're operating in 
some pretty dangerous areas. And we just appreciate the work 
that you and your organizations are doing for people that we 
care about very deeply. And I think you present the presence of 
the United States in a very favorable way, and we appreciate 
that as well.
    Thank you.
    Mr. Andres. Thank you.
    Mr. Lynch. We're going to recess just for a moment to 
activate our next panel of witnesses. Thank you.
    [Recess.]
    Mr. Lynch. Welcome back, everyone.
    I would now like to introduce the witnesses for our second 
panel.
    First, we are joined by Mr. Christopher Stokes, who is the 
emergency coordinator for Ukraine for what is known in the 
United States as Doctors Without Borders, or MSF in French. Mr. 
Stokes has served in various capacities for Doctors Without 
Borders, including as General Director in Belgium, and in field 
assignments in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Indonesia, Chechnya, and 
now Ukraine.
    Next, we will also have and hear from Amanda Catanzano who 
is the Acting Vice President for Global Policy and Advocacy for 
the International Rescue Committee. Ms. Catanzano has 
previously served in multiple roles with the U.S. Government, 
including as Director for Strategic Planning at the National 
Security Council and as Policy Planning Director for the 
Secretary of State.
    Third, we are joined by Mr. Pete Walsh who is the Country 
Director for Ukraine for Save the Children. Mr. Walsh has an 
extensive career working in areas of conflict and for Save the 
Children. He has previously served as Country Director in South 
Sudan and in Tanzania.
    Fourth, we have Mr. Edward Graham, the Vice President of 
Operations for Samaritan's Purse. Mr. Graham joined Samaritan's 
Purse in early 2019, and after a 16-year long career with the 
United States Army, and I want to thank him for his service to 
our country as well.
    The witnesses will be unmuted so we can swear you in.
    Would you all please raise your right hands?
    Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to 
give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
so help you God?
    Mr. Stokes. I do
    Mrs. Catanzano. I do
    Mr. Walsh. I do
    Mr. Graham. I do
    Very good. Let the record show that the witnesses have all 
answered in the affirmative.
    Thank you. Without objection, your written statements will 
now be made part of the record.
    With that, Mr. Stokes, you are now recognized for your 
testimony.
    Thank you.

  STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER STOKES, EMERGENCY COORDINATOR FOR 
   UKRAINE, MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES/DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

    Mr. Stokes. Thank you, Chairman Lynch, Ranking Member 
Grothman, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank 
you for organizing this hearing on the humanitarian crisis in 
Ukraine.
    I'm speaking to you today from Ukraine where I'm serving as 
an emergency coordinator for Medecins San Frontieres, but known 
in the United States by our English name, Doctors Without 
Borders. We operate in over 70 countries around the world, 
guided by the humanitarian principles of neutrality, 
impartiality, and independence in line with universal medical 
ethics. These principles not only form the core of our 
identity, but they are also our protection when working in war 
and conflict.
    MSF first worked in Ukraine in 1999and has been responding 
to the conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014. As you are 
aware, conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated in late 
February 2022, displacing millions of people internally and 
into neighboring countries. Civilians have been injured and 
killed, homes and cities destroyed, hospitals and clinics 
damaged. The war has placed many in need of urgent humanitarian 
assistance.
    Ukraine, however, has an advanced healthcare system and a 
highly trained work force. These healthcare workers are asking 
for the supplies and support necessary to continue to care for 
their patients. The health system is supplemented by an 
extensive network of local organizations and volunteers who 
play a significant role in assisting people in need.
    As MSF, we've expanded our work in Ukraine where we 
currently employ over 600 staff. And since February 24, MSF has 
brought more than 800 metric tons of medical and relief 
supplies into Ukraine. We've established medical supply lines, 
provided training to hospitals across the country, and worked 
alongside Ukrainian doctors and nurses to restart medical care 
in the wake of active fighting.
    MSF supports services for survivors of sexual violence with 
medical and mental healthcare. Mobile medical clinics allows us 
to reach both urban areas where shelling makes movements 
dangerous and in outlying, rural areas where medical care has 
been interrupted by conflict.
    While roads are considered too dangerous, the two MSF-
medicalized trains that we are currently operating are the only 
means to move large numbers of critically war wounded safely 
across the vast distance of the country from east to west. 
These trains move patients from overburdened hospitals close to 
active conflict zones to hospitals away from the fighting and 
where there is more capacity for patient care.
    As of June 8, we've conducted 24 referral journeys by 
train, assisting 653 patients and their caregivers. Most 
patients are civilian, wounded by heavy artillery and rockets 
used extensively and indiscriminately in densely populated 
areas. An additional 78 infants and toddlers were also 
evacuated from an orphanage using the train, an orphanage that 
happened to be near the front line.
    Also, at the time of the missile strike on the Kramatorsk 
railway station, hundreds of civilians were awaiting 
evacuations to safer areas of Ukraine. MSF had evacuated 
patients from there only two days before. And in the aftermath 
of the attack, we transferred 11 injured people to safer 
hospitals in the west of the country. Most of them were 
children, the youngest being eight years old.
    In accordance with international humanitarian law, MSF is 
seeking urgent access to all people affected by the conflict 
wherever they are. People living in occupied and contested 
areas need protection and access to medical care and central 
service. Impartial humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach 
them. Access to healthcare will be a continuing challenge in 
the coming months. Regardless of war, babies are born, children 
become ill, and those with chronic diseases need access to 
medications and therapies.
    While we can provide hospitals with training and materials 
to respond to influxes of war wounded, the initial medical act 
that saves a person's life is often just the first step on the 
path to recovery. War inflicts physical and psychological 
traumas that require specialized, long-term treatment.
    While continuing to support the medical needs of people 
affected by this crisis, it is important that this happens in 
addition to, and not at the expense of other vulnerable people 
around the world. The impact of the war on Ukraine will affect 
MSF's patients far from that crisis. In multiple countries, we 
see outbreaks of measles following pandemic-related 
interruptions in routine vaccination programs.
    In Afghanistan, waves of malnutrition and measles have 
resulted in pediatric hospitals so overwhelmed with severely 
ill children that there were not enough beds. In Chad, we are 
reaching our capacity to meet nutrition needs after U.N. 
programs were cut. We're doing our best to scale up our 
response to severe malnutrition in northwest Nigeria.
    We recognize this government's additional funding for 
assistance in Ukraine and elsewhere, yet regret that it will 
not meet all the needs. We've seen the resources the United 
States and international community are capable of mobilizing 
when the political will exists are massive. We urge you and 
other governments to rise to this moment and to respond to 
neglected crises with the same determination and commitment.
    Thank you for your concern for the people in Ukraine and 
around the world and for the opportunity to hear this testimony 
today. I'll be pleased to respond to your questions. Thank you.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Stokes.
    We want to welcome Ms. Catanzano. You're now recognized for 
five minutes for your testimony.
    Thank you.

STATEMENT OF AMANDA CATANZANO, ACTING VICE PRESIDENT FOR GLOBAL 
      POLICY AND ADVOCACY, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE

    Ms. Catanzano. Chairman Lynch, Ranking Member Grothman, and 
members of the subcommittee, thank you for convening this 
hearing on the humanitarian consequences of the war on Ukraine.
    I represent the International Rescue Committee, a 
humanitarian organization providing aid in Ukraine, supporting 
refugees in Europe, and welcoming Ukrainian parolees in the 
U.S. We also operate in over 40 crisis-affected countries, 
giving us a global perspective on the cascading crises this 
conflict has unleashed.
    Ukrainians, of course, are feeling the war's impact most 
directly. Thousands have been killed or injured and millions 
more have lost their jobs, their homes, and their hope. Nearly 
14 million have been displaced, including two-thirds of all 
children. Needs are worst in the south and east, where hundreds 
of thousands are trapped amidst intense fighting. 1.4 million 
lack running water. Western and central Ukraine are 
comparatively calm, and we're seeing more Ukrainian returnees 
than refugees.
    But missile strikes in Kyiv over the weekend remind us that 
stability is precarious. Already over 200 healthcare facilities 
have been attacked. Over 1,800 schools have been damaged or 
destroyed. 90 percent of Ukrainians could fall below the 
poverty line, erasing two decades of economic growth. Nearly 16 
million Ukrainians need humanitarian assistance, but insecurity 
and access challenges are limiting the response.
    The war has spurred the fastest moving refugee crisis since 
the second World War, producing 7 million refugees, almost all 
women and children. Despite the inspiring welcome, the response 
is showing strains, especially on Ukraine's closest neighbors. 
Most refugees remain in Poland, stressing housing stocks. 
Moldova, among Europe's poorest countries, is hosting the most 
Ukrainians per capita and could see more if the conflict moves 
south.
    But the U.N. refugee response is 80 percent underfunded, 
and donors, including the U.S., have channeled most funding 
through U.N. agencies, rather than frontline implementers. 
Volunteers, local government, and private sector resources are 
filling gaps heroically, but this will wane with time.
    And in just 100 days, the fallout of this crisis has gone 
global. Ukraine and Russia produce a quarter of the world's 
grain. With Black Sea ports blocked and millions of tons of 
grain trapped in silos, food prices are skyrocketing everywhere 
the IRC works. In Somalia, which depends on Russia and Ukraine 
for 92 percent of its grain, food prices have surged 40 to 100 
percent. The cost of malnutrition treatment has soared soo we 
are reaching fewer of Somalia's 1 million malnourished 
children. And water trucking costs have doubled, halving the 
number of Somalis we can supply with clean water during a 
historic drought.
    Yemen depends on Ukraine for nearly half its wheat. Lebanon 
imports 80 percent of its grain from Ukraine. Food prices from 
the Sahel to Central America have surpassed five-year highs. 
The U.N. warns 47 more people--47 million more people will 
experience acute hunger this year, adding to last year's 
record, 276 million. And with all eyes on Ukraine, the U.N. 
flash appeal for that crisis is 75 percent funded, but appeals 
for other crises globally are less than 19 percent funded on 
average.
    The IRC applauds Congress for allocating over $4 billion in 
emergency humanitarian funding. We urge the U.S. to build on 
that step. First, while only an end to the fighting will ease 
the suffering inside Ukraine, the U.S. should prioritize 
diplomatic efforts to expand humanitarian access, including 
strengthening U.N. monitoring mechanisms to document the denial 
of access, encourage the government of Ukraine to remove 
barriers to cash-based aid which is vital to meet needs, while 
also giving Ukrainians agency in supporting local markets, and 
invest in protection services to meet the unique needs of 
women, children, the elderly and disabled.
    Second, to show solidarity with the host communities in 
Europe, the U.S. should, together with other donors, increase 
funding to host countries before private and local government 
funding decreases. Push for burden-sharing across Europe, both 
with respect to numbers of refugees hosted and equitable access 
to support. Regularize the status of Ukrainian parolees 
arriving in the U.S. by passing the Ukrainian Adjustment Act.
    Third, to mitigate the global hunger fallout, the U.S. 
should commit additional funds to humanitarian contacts most 
dependent on Ukrainian and Russian exports, to ensure U.S. 
sanctions have clear guidance related to critical commodities 
like food and fertilizer, and to catalyze humanitarian 
diplomacy to open Ukraine's Black Sea ports with the countries 
most affected by the shortages at the center.
    But aid is not enough. There must be more accountability. 
The dynamics of death, destruction, displacement, and denial of 
access are driving the misery. These tactics are not unique to 
Ukraine. The U.S. should reaffirm its own commitments to 
international humanitarian law, ensure respect for it is a 
prerequisite for security partnerships and arms transfers, 
including for Ukraine, and support mechanisms to monitor 
violations in all conflict settings. The war in Ukraine should 
mark the end of impunity, not set a new precedent for it.
    Thank you, and I look forward to answering your questions.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Ms. Catanzano.
    We want to welcome Mr. Walsh. You're now recognized for 
your testimony. Thank you.

STATEMENT OF PETE WALSH, COUNTRY DIRECTOR FOR UKRAINE, SAVE THE 
                            CHILDREN

    Mr. Walsh. Thank you very much, Chairman Lynch, Ranking 
Member Grothman, and distinguished members of the subcommittee.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the current 
crisis in Ukraine that continues to put 7.5 million children at 
risk. I'm calling in from Kyiv today in Ukraine, and it was on 
the 24th of February that we rapidly scaled up to meet the 
needs of 12 million people across Ukraine. We work with local 
and national partners to provide cash, water, food, medicine, 
hygiene kits, establish safe spaces for children, and deliver 
bunk kits into the front line.
    I wanted to open with a real-life story of my experience in 
Ukraine. On the 5th of April, we visited the southern ports and 
shipbuilder city of Mykolaiv and, more specifically, Mykolaiv 
children's referral hospital the day after a reported air 
strike in and around the hospital grounds.
    Walking around the grounds, I saw shrapnel shards, 
projectiles, and ambulance, private cars, and a large minivan 
destroyed, blown-out windows of neighboring properties, the 
blood on the floor outside the emergency department. The 
hospital--the hospital--sorry--walking--the hospital is in a 
residential area. Not a single military target was in sight.
    While there were reports of civilian fatalities, I remember 
two stories of two girls, both who were in the operating 
theater at the time of the attack, one, a 15-year-old girl, who 
was having shrapnel removed; and the second, a six-year-old 
girl, having a bullet removed from her arm from previous 
attacks. And then, one of these missiles and rockets from the 
attack hit the operating theater. Tragically, the girls 
received further blast injuries from that attack which rendered 
them into intensive care. Their lives were now in severe 
danger. However, the wonderful Mykolaiv medical director, Dr. 
Iryna, who I met, told us on that day that the girls were 
unlikely to survive the night. However, five days later we had 
a call from Dr. Iryna, informing us that by some miraculous 
reason, they did survive but with life-changing injuries and 
trauma that will remain for the rest of their lives.
    These are only two stories of the 7.5 million children 
affected by the war in Ukraine. On average, two children have 
been killed or injured every day since this--since the start of 
the escalation. A child has become a refugee almost every 
second. There have been over 9,500 civilian casualties with 
over 272 children killed, and a further 439 injured.
    The needs of children must be at the heart of any response. 
We, therefore, call on the U.S. Government in the following 
three ways:
    One, help us better protect children in Ukraine. Continue 
to condemn all attacks on schools and hospitals, schools need 
to be a safe space and cannot be used by the military. 
Prioritize investment in critical programming. This includes 
child protection, mental health, psychosocial support, and 
inclusive and safe education. Recognize the specific risks that 
face separating unaccompanied children and support the call for 
no intercountry adoption at this time.
    No. 2, champion our needs to access the most vulnerable 
children, including those living past the contact lines.
    No. 3, ensure all accountability mechanisms have dedicated 
child rights expertise and that all mechanisms are coordinated, 
including with the Office of the Prosecutor General.
    All air strikes and explosions continue to plague 
children's lives. Millions of children have lost relatives, 
their families ripped apart. Parents have had to make difficult 
decisions. Should they flee or remain? The level of violence 
and trauma that I have witnessed cannot be underestimated. One 
of our psychologists describe children arriving in one of our 
child-friendly spaces as being in a state of catatonic. Their 
drawings are filled with civilians running from tanks, bombs, 
and crying women.
    At least 1,939 schools have been damaged and destroyed 
since the 24th of February. One in every 10 schools that come 
under attack this year was destroyed. Not only this has 
deprived children from safe, quality education, but also 
increases protection risks, cuts off children from a sense of 
normalcy, and interrupts other service, such as nutrition and 
immunization. Thousands of children have been separated and are 
now unaccompanied, thus exposing them to new threats including 
sexual violence, trafficking, or exploitation. These children 
may not be orphans, but, rather, they have gotten separated or 
they have been sent across the border for safety, a brutal 
decision for any parent to make.
    While we are aware of health, education, psychological 
needs of millions of children across Ukraine, we cannot reach 
tens of thousands of children and their families past this 
contact line. This is due to the unpredictability of the 
conflict, unexploded ordnances, and the lack of assurance of 
safety.
    Areas in need, such as Donetsk and Luhansk are undergoing 
intense military action and shelling. Families are trapped, 
unable to leave. There might be an elderly grandmother or sick 
family member. Some simply cannot afford to leave. We must be 
able to get access to these families.
    However, as guaranteed by international law, families who 
want to leave must be allowed. Unfortunately, we continue to 
hear of families including children being caught up in shelling 
or denied exit from such areas. Attacks that target or cause 
harm to families on the move are prohibited under international 
law.
    Save the Children has been impressed by the momentum of 
accountability across Ukraine, internationally recognized as a 
watershed moment. Several mechanisms have been initiated and 
deployed, including the U.S.-supported Atrocity Crimes Advisory 
Group and the Conflict Observatory.
    While we recognize such proactive action, we reiterate our 
call for the inclusion of child rights expertise to ensure that 
collective preservation and analysis of all evidence is in line 
with the best interest of the child.
    To conclude, at times, the conflict feels relentless and 
it's hard to picture a safe and secure future for millions of 
children. However, over the last three months, I have watched 
us scale up over 100 staff in country. We are supporting over 
20 Ukrainian new partners and their staff, all working together 
to protect children.
    We thank the U.S. Government for their support and we 
continu to call for you to work with us so that we can continue 
to deliver a principled, humanitarian response to millions of 
children and their family across Ukraine.
    I thank you for your attention.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Walsh.
    We welcome Mr. Graham. You're recognized now for five 
minutes for your testimony.
    Thank you.

 STATEMENT OF EDWARD GRAHAM (MINORITY WITNESS), VICE PRESIDENT 
                OF OPERATIONS, SAMARITAN'S PURSE

    Mr. Graham. Mr. Chairman, to the rest of the committee, I 
thank you for this opportunity. I'm going to focus a little bit 
more on the agility of NGO, especially faith-based NGO's, and 
one of the advantages I think we often have with the local 
church and some of these countries and how we operate and those 
are our partners.
    I want to be clear up front. Samaritan's Purse is not a 
humanitarian aid organization. We are a Christian relief 
organization that uses the resources entrusted to us by God to 
meet the immediate needs of those who are suffering due to 
manmade conflict or natural disasters including diseases.
    We love and serve everyone that is in need without 
discrimination. We do this because we love our neighbor. Just 
as the scripture commands us do, we meet the immediate needs of 
those suffering. And then we hope that our work reflects the 
love of Christ in the work that we do. We want them to know 
that God loves them. And he loves them so much that he sent his 
only son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross for them.
    All that we have at Samaritan's Purse is the Lord. It's not 
ours, and we give it to those people out of His hands. With 
that, Samaritan's Purse has several aviation assets, medical 
assets, hospitals that we're able to deploy around the world at 
a moment's notice. We've actually been very gifted with 
expeditionary capabilities that allow us to serve quickly.
    In late February, when the war began, I was personally 
traveling abroad. But that's when the conflict started, and I 
redirected our vice president of international projects to go 
to Ukraine and start assessing what the need was. And 
immediately Samaritan's Purse deployed one of its tier 3 
surgical hospitals where it began to set up and treat patients. 
We also set up some stepdown clinics in Lviv. At that time, we 
thought the Russian bear was coming, and that everything was 
going to collapse. Even the Ukrainians thought that because we 
saw, and the world saw, and then the chef did a good job of 
depicting thousands of refugees flying to the border and trying 
to get out.
    When I went through the border that second week of the war, 
the car line was 14 kilometers long, and the need was just the 
chaos at the border. So, we started set up and working in 
Moldova, Romania, Poland, treating those refugees and helping 
them, but also working medically inside Ukraine, serving those.
    But we're able to set up quickly and do a lot of this and 
with the assessments because of our church network, and we're 
fortunate to have that. But eventually, the war started to 
change, and we saw some focus change and we knew food was going 
to be a huge issue, just as the chef said, but further east, 
where the fighting is.
    While in Ukraine, though, I saw the church housing, 
feeding, and providing medical supplies to the displaced. I'm 
proud of the church. I saw many churches transporting, housing, 
feeding, providing limited medical support but spiritual 
support. They're living out the New Testament, the story of the 
good Samaritan. The church was and is the perfect partner. The 
church also allows us to get into areas serving, especially 
with our food program that I'll talk about, further into areas, 
and some of those areas I can't talk about for safety reasons, 
but it's an unbelievable network.
    About three weeks, when we did see the war changing, that's 
when I went to the Baptist Union and the Pentecostal Union. 
These are church partners we've had for a long time, especially 
through one of our ministries called Operation Christmas Child. 
With that, we're in over 120 different countries, serving with 
trained staff and volunteers. So, when conflict happens in one 
of these countries, we respond quickly. Ukraine alone, we have 
3,300 churches that participate in this program.
    Our sister organization, my grandfather's, the Billy Graham 
Evangelistic Association, has worked in Ukraine for years as 
well. So, when I went to the Baptist Union, the Pentecostal 
Union to set up a reverse flow of our logistic nodes, we sent 
about 600,000 shoeboxes, gift-filled shoeboxes from Operation 
Christmas Child last year alone. That is already the logistical 
nodes that we need to do these large-scale feeding programs.
    So right now, currently, Samaritan's Purse has 128 staff 
members in the region. Over 500 are our staff deployed so far. 
We have treated over 12,000, about 12,500 patients in our 
medical sites and our field hospital, 157 surgeries. That's 
5,900 tons of food distributed across two countries, 1.4 
million assisted. We've flown our DC-8 cargo plane out of 
Greensboro, North Carolina, every week since the conflict 
started. That's 520 tons of relief supplies, nonfood items. We 
even had to rent a 747-cargo plane early in the war because 
their need was so great.
    But so our plane doesn't fly back empty, we started working 
with the Canadian government. And we're flying refugees--as was 
mentioned before, we're flying refugees out of Poland, into 
Canada where they're being served alongside our sister or one 
of our affiliate offices up there in Canada but being placed 
and work with the churches there for support.
    But because Samaritan's Purse is a Christian organization 
and faith-based, we do not rely on government grants. Our 
donors allow us to remain agile and able to respond immediately 
where called to serve. There is no committee meetings, no 
waiting to build a team, no waiting on government grants. God 
has entrusted Samaritan's Purse with the resources on tap to 
help those in desperate need.
    One of the reasons Samaritan's Purse was able to respond 
immediately to Ukraine, again, was that established church 
network that I've already talked about.
    When I was in Ukraine during the second week of the war, I 
met the head of the Baptist Union, the Pentecostal Union. They 
immediately started working with us. And I'm fortunate and 
blessed to have that relationship, but it's not ours. That's 
something that God's given to us.
    But this food pipeline, again, it will continue to morph. 
It will continue to change. We'll work with those teams and 
those churches to feed further to the east, and that's where 
many of our teams are right now. They're also set up an 
ambulance relay system where they're getting people with burn 
and blast injuries, getting them out of country, training those 
hospitals where we saw a great need.
    But I want to finish. I don't think most Ukrainians know 
that the U.S. is helping with humanitarian. They know the 
lethal aid and they will speak into that and they're 
appreciative and they would ask for more. But what they don't 
see is necessarily U.S. humanitarian. What they see is the 
NGO's, and they see the church, and that's who we partner with. 
They see the church working and loving on their neighbors and 
serving those in most need.
    So, I don't come to the government, asking for anything and 
any resources. I would just ask that you continue to encourage 
the generosity of the American citizen to donate to faith-based 
organizations that are agile, can remove quickly. Just as the 
chef talked about, just think if the U.S. wasn't benevolent and 
that the American people didn't give, what the response in 
Ukraine would look like right now. It would be disastrous. I 
think it is the generosity of the American people that has 
responded immediately and helped to love their neighbor here in 
a time of crisis.
    I appreciate it and thanks for the time and I look forward 
to your questions.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Graham.
    I want to thank all our witnesses for their statements.
    Now, I will yield five minutes to myself for some 
questions.
    Ms. Catanzano, you had a very good perspective on the 
cascading effects, not just what's going on within the borders 
of Ukraine, but also you talked about the cascading effects 
beyond the borders. Our committee, as well, myself included, 
have visited, you know, Somalia, Yemen, a lot of the places 
that you cited that--especially North Africa where you cited 
the absence of Ukrainian wheat and supplies would have a 
devastating impact.
    I also want to ask you about the border countries. So, our 
subcommittee spent time in Moldova, Romania, and Poland. And I 
realize now that Moldova is one of the poorer countries in 
Europe, and yet, it was heartwarming to see the way those 
people who didn't have two nickels to rub together were, 
despite that fact, welcoming in families into their own homes, 
refugees into their own homes.
    Do you have any visibility on how those countries and those 
people who are also showing tremendous, tremendous hospitality 
and kindness to the refugee population--and I'm talking about 
principally Poland, Romania, and Moldova--do you have any 
visibility into in terms of what their need might be?
    I noticed that, you know, unlike Afghanistan, or other 
parts of the world where the committee has visited, where there 
are large refugee camps, that's not the situation in these 
neighboring countries. They've been--these refugees have been 
taken in, in large part into private homes. But I'm not sure 
how sustainable that might be in the long term. I think it's 
heroic. But I'm not so sure, you know, that it's the most 
efficacious way to deal with that problem.
    So, Ms. Catanzano, do you have any visibility on the 
situation in those neighboring countries and what we might be 
doing to ease their burden?
    Ms. Catanzano. Thank you, Chairman. And thank you for that 
question.
    We are operating in Poland and working in Moldova as well. 
And I can absolutely endorse your perspective that it's been 
heroic and inspiring to see the welcome that these countries 
and these citizens have offered to displaced Ukrainians.
    I think it's also I can endorse your perspective that there 
are strains and stresses on these communities and these cities 
and these countries, given the disproportionate burden that 
Ukraine's nearest neighbors are bearing in this response.
    Like you said, there isn't a camp-based response. This is 
members of the community welcoming Ukrainians into their homes 
and into their lives, thinking it was going to be for a few 
weeks and here we are 100 days later.
    I think that spirit of generosity and welcome is still 
there. But in the case of, say, Poland, for instance, some of 
the subsidies the government was able to provide early on to 
those hosting refugees, as, you know, meager as they may have 
been, it was something, are running out.
    There was a housing crisis in large Polish cities before 
February 24, but now you can imagine the strain on housing 
stocks when the populations of cities have swelled by 15 or 20 
percent with Ukrainians. It's making it even more difficult 
that we're reaching the summer season, and the generosity of 
Airbnb or vacation rentals that were opened up to Ukrainian 
families, those owners, they need that income. And so, we are 
going to see some of those housing stocks decline.
    I think similarly in Moldova, while it's not hosting the 
sheer numbers that Poland is, it's hosting the highest number 
per capita, and it has the lowest GDP on the continent. And 
it's not just the numbers that are housing now but us looking 
around corners and wondering what's going to happen if the 
conflict moves south to Odessa, that's going to be where those 
civilian population of Ukraine moves quickly. So, we've seen 
inflation. We've seen an overwhelming need at reception centers 
within Moldova.
    I think we have to bear in mind that, while there's been an 
overwhelming amount of support for inside Ukraine, for the 
countries that are hosting these Ukrainians, they're not seeing 
the same level of support. I mentioned in my opening statement 
the response plan for the neighbors is only--is 80 percent 
underfunded. And a lot of those funds are being channeled or 
almost all of those funds from big donors including the United 
States being channeled through U.N. agencies, which makes the 
response a little bit less dynamic and nimble than it could be 
if those funds were flowing directly to frontline implementers. 
I think Chef Andres highlighted some of those challenges in his 
testimony earlier.
    So, we are worried. We are pushing both for more funding 
for the refugee response, but we're also pushing for more 
diplomacy to enhance the burden-sharing across Europe. The 
European Union did invoke the Temporary Protection Directive at 
the start of this crisis for the first time, but it's up to the 
member states to implement it and to think about the scope with 
which they were implemented.
    So, there's great disparity right now amongst the different 
European countries about what kind of access refugees have to 
support and services. So, that really affects secondary 
movement and keeps many Ukrainians in their countries of first 
refuge, which means that burden stays on Moldova and Poland.
    So, I appreciate that question. And I hope that we can 
continue to look inside Ukraine, but also look across the 
border, look throughout Europe, and as you said at the start, 
about the cascading crises globally.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you. That was very helpful. Thank you.
    I now recognize the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Grothman, 
for five minutes for his questions. Thank you.
    Mr. Grothman, you may have to unmute.
    Mr. Grothman. Yes, a question for Mr. Graham, or I guess 
the other people could weigh in as well.
    Percentagewise, you know, say 100, 100 percent would be 
Ukraine is adequately fed. Percentagewise, how much food is 
available in Ukraine compared to what would be considered 
adequate?
    Mr. Graham. I mean, to give a percentage, I think it's 
different in different places. You're looking in central parts 
of Ukraine and to the--you know, going back to the border to 
Poland. Life is somewhat going on as normal, but they may not 
have the access to the food they normally eat.
    The concerns are obviously toward the fighting area where 
our food networks are going and our pipelines are channeling. 
There you're seeing, I would--I mean, you're looking at 50 
percent, maybe, to give you a number from that off of what my 
team's telling me and seen on the ground. But it's not just 
necessarily the food. It's the nutritional value that you need 
to get to women, children, especially those women that are 
pregnant. You know, it's that good quality food and programming 
that you need access to and getting it there. So that's one of 
the bigger challenges that we're seeing there in getting food.
    Like the chef said, we're trying to buy locally as well. I 
know the silos, you talked about silos. You're looking at 
about, I think, it's like 35 million metric tons in the silos. 
But with the ports then blown up and closed by the Russians, 
they can't get that stuff out or they can't internally ship 
things into the country too well and around with the fighting.
    So, it's all been talked about. There's going to be massive 
issues in Africa because most of the food that support Africa 
comes out of this area. So, we're looking years down the road 
at the challenges. Internal to the country, I would say along 
the fighting areas, you're looking at 50 percent what is 
needed.
    Mr. Grothman. OK. From your experience, would it be more 
effective or helpful for the U.S. Government agency to provide 
direct assistance to the NGO's position in the country, or U.N. 
agencies?
    Mr. Graham. Well, I know Amanda talked about this. I 
thought she did a good job highlighting this, and the chef. The 
U.N. is an organization that has a lot of capacity. But it is a 
huge bureaucratic system, and it's slow to move. And it has to 
build resources. There's also the--based off neutrality and who 
they work with, they don't hire locally within Ukraine. I can't 
go in--I'm not in the U.N so I can't tell all their challenges.
    But I know, when you look at NGO's, the agility allows you 
to go work directly to the partner like us with the church. And 
the church is going to do the feeding and be the hands and the 
feet, and the Ukrainians are going to see the church, because 
one day Samaritan's Purses and these NGO's will leave. What 
does that church look like? How is that country? How is the 
internal systems, the internal economy set up for success for 
programming that's going to be sustaining? That's who we work 
with and it's responsive and it's immediate.
    We were there the second day of the war. I haven't seen 
much of the U.N. I have to be honest. I've seen very few cars 
while I was there. I'll be back next week. I'll report back, 
but my team's not seeing much of the U.N. there.
    Mr. Grothman. OK. I'll give you kind of a different 
question, but I always kind of wonder about it. When I look, I 
think of countries the size like the 100 biggest countries in 
the world. Ukraine apparently has the second lowest birth rate 
of all those countries. How does that affect your mission or 
what's going on in the Ukraine, this wildly low birthrate?
    Mr. Graham. Yes. Well, so especially during a time of 
conflict and time of war, we see a lot of children and a lot of 
displaced children. There's a safeguarding of children you want 
to take. So, we're concerned with children crossing the border, 
to make sure they're going with their parents or their loved 
one, a family member. And many of them are going without their 
fathers. That's a whole other challenge.
    But you're also looking at the medical needs that are 
women. When our hospital first set up in Lviv, I was there. One 
of the first patients we treated was a pregnant woman that 
hadn't felt her child kick in the last couple of days as she 
was fleeing the conflict. We were just able to let her be able 
to see her child and the heartbeat, listen to the heartbeat. We 
delivered children.
    There's a whole lot of needs when it comes to that. But 
then the feeding of children, making sure--we talk about 
formula here in this country. And I know it is a huge issue 
right now. I can imagine being a mother but imagine being a 
mother in this war zone, and what they're going through right 
now and the needs. And that's why the humanitarian need's so 
great.
    It's also a reason, one of the reasons Operation Christmas 
Child is such a big program there is because there are so many 
children. And they want--the churches want this ministry to 
come in there and work and serve alongside them.
    So, you bring up a great point, Representative. We 
appreciate you highlighting that. But I think some of these 
other NGO's, too, could highlight the needs they're seeing with 
the children and concerns, especially with safeguarding.
    Mr. Grothman. OK. Does anybody else wants to address that? 
That's OK. We'll give you another question then.
    I'm glad you're working through the churches. Could you 
describe the role of church in Ukraine? You hear in Europe in 
general is becoming kind of unchurched. But could you address, 
maybe, compared to other European countries the role of----
    Mr. Graham. Ukraine.
    Mr. Grothman [continuing]. the role of the church?
    Mr. Graham. Yes, sir. Ukraine's a little bit different. 
Ukraine, I would argue, is probably the most church country in 
Europe with that aspect of the--and I can speak directly 
because I've seen it--predominantly the Baptist Union, the 
Pentecostal Union. You have the Orthodox church there as well, 
even though recently they split away from the Russian Orthodox.
    But the church is active. It's alive. It's hungry. It wants 
to work. When I was there, before we even--I was there the 
start of the second week of the war. They were the ones housing 
and feeding and moving these individuals from the train 
stations to the border. And when one group would come out, 
another one would come into the church. And so, they're being 
the hands and feet of Jesus and they're living out the story of 
the good Samaritan. That's why I'm so proud of the church 
there. That might not be true in every country in Europe. But 
within Europe, the church is unbelievable and I'm proud of 
them--sorry--within Ukraine.
    Mr. Grothman. Thank you.
    Mr. Lynch. The gentleman's time has expired.
    I did note that Mr. Walsh might have a response to Mr. 
Grothman's question.
    You're free to answer if you wish, Mr. Walsh.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you so much and really great questions. 
Thank you, Chairman.
    So the issue of safeguarding is one of the highest 
priorities on Save the Children and its partners, both in 
Ukraine and neighboring countries. And we've set up a network 
of--for unaccompanied, separated children in Poland, in 
Romania, through our partners in Moldova and Lithuania, to work 
together as one to ensure that, if children are identified as 
unaccompanied, that they're quickly identified and very--and 
Save the Children really prioritizes the identification of 
their parents or their wider family to try and reunite them as 
soon as possible.
    You'd notice that I did, in my testimony, talk about the 
request for not to prioritize adoption. Save the Children is 
grateful for solidarity from across the world, for people who 
feel they want the need to adopt these children that are 
unaccompanied. But more often than not, these are children with 
parents. And very early on in the conflict, Save the Children 
asked for a moratorium for neighboring countries to not allow 
adoption because, while many people go with the genuine belief 
and intent to try and support children, there are also those 
that may have other alternative reasons for trying to adopt 
children.
    So that is why we are really trying to emphasis on the best 
interest of the child which is with their family.
    Mr. Lynch. It's a great point.
    The chair now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from 
Georgia, Mr. Johnson, for five minutes.
    Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And thank you to the witnesses on both panels who have 
testified today, and also thank you for your work on the ground 
in this humanitarian crisis.
    Ms. Catanzano, in a report released last month, the 
International Rescue Committee wrote that the war in Ukraine 
has, quote, ``highlighted the failure of the international 
community to anticipate and respond to crises and fulfill basic 
needs,'' end quote, of communities in crisis.
    Can you elaborate further about what IRC meant by that?
    Ms. Catanzano. Thank you, Congressman. I'm happy to respond 
to that question.
    When we look across the protracted and existing 
humanitarian crises in the countries where we work around the 
world, we're seeing that we've been in these places, in some 
cases, 20 or 25 years. These are protracted emergencies. These 
are not events that happened overnight, and yet, here we, are 
still providing services so many years later.
    As I mentioned, I believe, in my statement, it's wonderful 
to see the outpouring of support to the crisis inside Ukraine, 
and to see the funding levels so high. But it's also 
disheartening to look across the rest of the world and see 
funding levels so low. While the response in Ukraine is funded 
almost three quarters of the way only three months into this 
crisis, the rest of the world is looking at humanitarian 
response plans that are funded less than 20 percent. And these 
are places with communities and people on the knife's edge of 
famine, which is only being exacerbated by the knock-on effects 
of this war and the grain shortages and other food shortage, as 
well as increases fuel and fertilizer prices.
    So, we need sustained diplomatic attention. We need 
sustained funding across the board, and I think what we realize 
is it's very difficult to keep the international donor 
community focused on more than one crisis at a time. From 
August of last year to February, all eyes were on Afghanistan. 
That's--you know, we've all moved on to having eyes on Ukraine. 
It's important that we are able to walk and chew gum when it 
comes to these crises around the world.
    The U.S. is a very generous donor, and I really applaud 
Congress for the emergency supplemental and the foresight to 
allocate funding, not just for inside Ukraine, but for food 
insecurity impacts around the world. But I do think there's 
more that needs to be done to both combine emergency assistance 
with forward-looking, anticipatory funding for where we think 
the impacts will be worse, and to combine it with resiliency 
and future-oriented development programming that makes 
agricultural systems stronger, more drought-resistant and more 
shock-resistant for communities around the world that are 
really struggling and are only going to get worse over the 
course of this year as the grain shortage, the fuel shortages, 
and fertilizer shortages make life harder across the board.
    Mr. Johnson. Why is it that the international community has 
responded so differently to the crisis in Ukraine as opposed to 
the ongoing conflicts across the world that require 
international humanitarian assistance?
    Ms. Catanzano. Sir, I can only speculate to the answer to 
that question.
    Mr. Johnson. Please do.
    Ms. Catanzano. But I do think a lot of it is driven by news 
cycles in the media and what's on the cover of The New York 
Times or The Washington Post. I think it has a lot to do with 
understanding the dynamics of the conflict and the dynamics of 
the crisis. And I think the further away a crisis is happening 
and the less understandable it is to citizens of donor 
countries, the harder it is to rally attention and funding. 
Distance and complexity is the enemy of action. I think what 
we're seeing unfold in Ukraine reads very simply to people. 
It's--it was an invasion of one sovereign country into another. 
And the impact is playing out in front of our TV screens and 
our social media feeds every day.
    So, I do think that that drives a lot of the attention, a 
lot of the action, the shock and the disbelief that something 
like that could happen in the 21st century in the heart of 
Europe. But I don't think that gives us license to look away 
from populations that have been suffering longer and suffering 
from--suffering--already suffering, suffering for a long time, 
and increasingly suffering as a result of this crisis.
    So, I do think it has to do with the shock of it happening 
in Europe, but the fact that it's playing out on our TV and 
social media feeds and the fact that it's a little bit more 
understandable perhaps to the average citizen than what's 
happening in a car or across the Sahel. But I do think it's 
incumbent on us to overcome that and figure out how to get 
diplomatic and funding attention on those most in need 
according to humanitarian principles.
    Mr. Johnson. Thank you so much.
    My time has expired.
    Mr. Lynch. The gentleman yields back.
    Thank you.
    The chair now recognizes the gentlelady from North 
Carolina, Ms. Foxx, for her questions.
    Ms. Foxx. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    And I want to compliment you on this hearing. It's one of 
the better hearings, I believe, we have had in this committee 
and others. I'm very sorry that this committee--that this 
hearing wasn't being held in prime-time last night, because I 
think it is one, again, very, very important for the American 
people to hear what's being said by these witnesses today.
    And I want to thank, particularly, Major Graham for being 
here with us today. Samaritan's Purse is in my district and 
very, very proud of the work that Samaritan's Purse does year 
after year after year. I have no--[audio malfunction.]
    Mr. Lynch. Ms. Foxx, you might be muted. I'm sorry.
    Ms. Foxx. I didn't mute myself. OK. Let me see.
    Maybe you could stop my clock for a second.
    I'm very proud that Samaritan's Purse----
    Mr. Lynch. We--yes, go ahead. I'm sorry.
    Ms. Foxx. That's OK. I'm very proud that Samaritan's Purse 
is in my district, and I've known the Graham family for a long 
time.
    I appreciate very much the comments that Major Graham 
brought up about Samaritan's Purse and the ability for 
Samaritan's Purse to go in and work with the churches and the 
Baptist Union. I've often heard--I heard on 9/11 that the 
Baptist men were the most effective people in New York City on 
9/11 and I am very, very grateful to hear that that is 
continuing. I also am concerned about the issue being brought 
up about the U.N. and it being such a bureaucratic 
organization.
    I would like to ask Major Graham. What lessons can the 
Federal Government take from how your organization--and I may, 
if I have time, I'll ask the others--responded to the attack on 
Ukraine and what things could we know and learn from this that 
you all have learned?
    Mr. Graham. Yes, ma'am. And, Congresswoman, it's great to 
see you today.
    I think one of the biggest lessons--well, the world was 
wrong on, I think, what they thought was going to happen with 
the Russian invasion. Many thought they were just going to wipe 
right through, and we were going to see a different Ukraine, or 
it'd all be Russia and we were wrong and that's great.
    But war changes, and it changes quickly. I learned that in 
Special Operations. It's fluid. Things on the ground change. As 
an NGO, and as a faith-based organization, we have to be agile 
and be able to change to the needs on the ground. When we first 
got there, the assumption, and it is still is a huge need, the 
medical need. But we thought we were talking massive surgeries 
and trauma. And some of that did happen, but it quickly turned 
to food. And that's always usually going to be the case in war 
and conflict is food.
    But we had to be able to pivot quickly, and that was 
brought up before. You have to be able to do more than one 
thing. You got to be able to walk and chew gum. We had to do 
that all over the world with various projects we got going on. 
But even in Ukraine, there's multiple ways to be able serve and 
work through the church. The church--and each church union has 
different capacities, different opportunities to serve, 
different logistics nodes. We got to be able to plug in and 
reinforce and hammer down and reinforce action that is working.
    And when we started seeing these nodes get food into areas 
that are beyond the conflict zone on the other side, where 
there is huge problems and you're not getting much and you're 
not hearing the press because it's on the other side of the 
Russian lines, we know that this food pipeline is working. 
We're watching and tracking where they're going. So, we 
reinforce that action. And we give that church and those nodes 
more food, more equipment, more resources.
    So, you have to be able to pivot and quick. The United 
Nations, I'm not here to beat them up. Again, I'm not in the 
United Nations, never part of it. And at this point, I don't 
think God's ever going to call me to be in the U.N. But it is a 
beast. And just like in the military, I was in the U.S. Army 
for years. It is hard to shift and move. As agile as they think 
they are, that's why I stayed in Special Operations--agile, 
quick, resources. The government gives Special Operations 
different authorities, allowed to respond quicker in a time of 
crisis.
    Do that here as well. When you take away bureaucratic red 
tape, things speed up. Oversight and watch. I understand you 
have to track where the money goes. Those are good things. You 
owe accountability to the taxpayer. Find those nonprofits and 
NGO's that are working, that have reliable reputations in other 
parts of the world, that have the access, and hammer down.
    Ms. Foxx. Thank you.
    I want to say to Ms. Catanzano that Governor David Beasley 
comes to our prayer breakfast almost every Thursday morning 
he's in town, and he brings to our attention the needs all over 
the world.
    Mr. Walsh, a quick question for you that you won't be able 
to answer on air, I don't think, but I'd like to get an answer 
from you later.
    I have a county in my district that has had a very close 
relationship with Ukraine for many, many years and the churches 
there. And we've had some people in the county who were in the 
midst of adoptions of children who were approved to come to the 
United States to Ashe County, and those adoptions were stopped. 
And we have people asking us what can they do to finalize those 
adoptions, and there are people who want to take children in.
    So, if you could give us information, give the staff of the 
committee information on how we might connect those people 
again, and what is being done to reunite children with their 
families, that would be interesting, I think, for the whole 
committee to know, but if you could give us information on 
contact people that we could get to for these people who are 
desperate to complete those adoptions.
    But if you want to say anything about how you're reuniting 
families, and the chairman would allow that, I think it would 
be interesting for the whole committee to hear.
    Mr. Lynch. Of course.
    Mr. Walsh, you may proceed.
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you very much.
    And thank you, Representative Foxx, for your question. And, 
you know, our hearts go out andnd we welcome and so grateful 
for the solidarity of the American people who, you know, have 
genuine adoption applications with children in Ukraine.
    But right now, when martial law is in place and the normal 
protection systems and the safeguarding systems that you would 
normally find in the country are stretched, or they're being 
repurposed for the war efforts, there is a lot of confusion, 
and maybe things aren't working as they should be.
    Plus, we're in an unprecedented time with children on the 
move. We're--you know, this response is urban. It's transient. 
It's about migration. And, you know, separated unaccompanied 
children in an emergency are extremely vulnerable to 
trafficking, to exploitation. And every effort must be taken to 
safeguards--safeguards are in place to protect children from 
abuse.
    So, what Save the Children has tried to do is through our 
networks, through our partners across the countries, the 
neighboring countries, is to identify these unaccompanied 
children. And we are doing a fairly good job at that. However, 
we need the government's support, which we are getting, plus 
additional partners to come on board to ensure that we 
safeguard children.
    Once we identify children unaccompanied, there is a set 
process we follow which is--which follows all safeguarding 
rules and procedures that we do not rush to reunite any child 
that is unaccompanied. Those processes and procedures must be 
met. And only then once they are met, then we try to reach out 
to the family, the extended family, look at their status, 
employ local partners and use local authorities to help with 
the reunification process.
    And we've been doing this for many years now in many 
countries. I saw over 4,000 children in South Sudan reunited 
with their families. And the grief and the joy of seeing a 
child run to their mother's arms, who hasn't seen that child 
for over 18 months and maybe have lost other members due to the 
war that I saw in South Sudan, is amazing.
    Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Mr. Lynch. OK. The gentlelady yields back. Thank you very 
much.
    The chair now recognizes the distinguished gentleman from 
California, Mr. DeSaulnier, for five minutes.
    Welcome.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, the distinguished 
member from south Boston.
    I just want to followup a little bit on Ranking Member 
Foxx's, and not for a comment but to maybe work with you. I 
have a family in particular in my district in northern 
California who I've met with. They were in the process, before 
the war, of adopting a Ukrainian child. That child is now stuck 
in Germany, and we're really having a difficult time 
facilitating with the State Department getting her to her 
adopted family in California. So, I'd like to followup with 
Member Foxx's comments.
    And, then, our ability to comprehend consistently, I think, 
as a species and a society of what's happening in Ukraine, with 
our just being overwhelmed with what seems like daily impactful 
things happening around the world--but, as I listen to the 
discuss, I think, Mr. Chairman, of our trips, my trips to Syria 
and dealing with children in the refugee camps there in Jordan 
and following up with that and how this pattern is repeating 
itself.
    And it seems like either an indiscriminate or a purposeful 
psychological tool, weapon, of Mr. Putin, to go after the most 
vulnerable members of what he perceives as his enemies, in 
particularly children, having met with those families and those 
kids who walked for miles to get to safety.
    Mr. Stokes, the psychological impacts, the behavioral 
health needs--and maybe Mr. Walsh or others--how are we dealing 
with that in the near term, but how do we look at this ongoing?
    We know the impacts to neuroscience, to developing 
cognitive development. I can't imagine the impacts this is 
going to have, as we're seeing with the Syrian refugees and 
what appears to be a deliberate psychological--I can't describe 
it--weapon to demoralize countries by doing this damage that 
will last generations.
    So, what do you see happening? What are you able to provide 
in the near term? And what can we talk about for the long term?
    And, unfortunately, as long as this person is in power, it 
seems like this is clearly a pattern that he doesn't care 
about. And, for some reason, it seems that our ability to 
concentrate and have a global response to this as a weapon of 
war is also a problem.
    But, first and foremost, tell me what you're able to do 
right now to help with kids. Almost 300 kids have lost their 
lives in Ukraine. Almost 500 have been seriously wounded. Two 
out of three, I think, 5 million, Ukrainian kids no longer live 
in, have been forced to move out of their homes. Those impacts 
are significant in the near term, right now, but also long-term 
devastation.
    Mr. Stokes. Yes. Thanks for that question.
    If I can share the experience that we've seen by moving 
families from the east to the west here in Lviv, in the western 
part of the country, men, women, and children, I would say that 
two particular groups are affected--indeed children, but also 
the elderly. And these people are being uprooted from their 
homes and their towns in the east and coming here to the 
relative safety of the west.
    Mental health is a major issue, and we've seen that in the 
patients that we are treating and the patients we are 
transporting. They've seen some terrible things, and some of 
them have been living underground in bunkers and shelters for 
weeks and months. We've had families shelled as they were 
evacuating Mariupol who we've also treated and transported to 
safety across the country.
    So mental health is clearly a big issue for these people as 
well, but also the social care that's needed. Once they've been 
treated in hospitals in Lviv or in other parts of the west of 
Ukraine, they are then very vulnerable and left sometimes to 
fend for themselves, and this is clearly a major issue.
    Also, we're seeing significant mental health needs in 
people who've returned from, for example, Belarus or who were 
taken from the north of Kyiv and taken when the Russian troops 
were retreating. And we've been organizing mental health care, 
and we're trying to look at supporting survivors of torture who 
are coming back from neighboring countries with some quite 
horrendous stories actually.
    So mental health is going to be an issue. It is today and 
it will be for the medium and the long term here in Ukraine, 
absolutely.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. To you, Mr. Walsh, just briefly: Do you get 
a sense that they understand that there is a world of support, 
immediately but in the long term, to help them with these 
issues?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you. I do. I really do.
    And I think what's really important, as I mentioned and you 
mentioned about cognitive behavior, we are actually providing 
bunker kits, which is purely designed to go into the areas of 
contact where children are in bunkers right now and cowering 
from bombings and shelling and fighting. And these kits are 
designed to connect with the child, to get the child for the 
one moment, you know, to be a child, rather than having to 
think about what's happening aboveground. And that's really 
important for an early stage intervention for mental health and 
psychosocial support.
    And I have met children, you know, in counseling sessions, 
in mental health counseling sessions, and heard harrowing 
stories of what they've been exposed to. But they do connect 
very well to social media, so they are also aware of the 
international community and how much support is being received. 
But probably they hear more about the lethal aid, as mentioned 
by I think Mr. Graham, rather than the aid that's coming from 
the U.S. taxpayer.
    So, yes, I do think they are aware.
    Mr. DeSaulnier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Thank you for all that you do, all of the panelists.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Lynch. The gentleman yields back.
    As a courtesy to my friend the ranking member, does he have 
any closing remarks or questions?
    Mr. Grothman? If you have any closing remarks or questions.
    Mr. Grothman. No, I'd just like to thank you for this 
hearing. I'd like to thank all the witnesses. I think it was 
very illuminating.
    We'll see what we can do in the future to use these 
responses as we do what we can to craft American policy not 
only to deal with the crisis in Ukraine but the crises around 
the world.
    So, I'd just like to thank the chairman for convening this 
subcommittee, and I'd like to thank all the witnesses for 
spending so much time with us this Friday morning.
    Mr. Lynch. Thank you.
    In closing, I do want to just spend a little time with Mr. 
Stokes.
    You know, Doctors Without Borders has a central role to 
play within this conflict, as you do in so many other 
instances. And I'm just wondering if there are sufficient 
support systems around your work. Are there gaps? Are there 
things that we are missing?
    Because, as so many of you have pointed out, you really do 
need to be on the ground, have boots on the ground, and 
sometimes bureaucracy can get in the way of things.
    Are there things that you would want this committee to know 
regarding your ability to deliver the relief and support that 
you're intended to?
    Mr. Stokes. I would say--thanks for the question, Mr. 
Chairman.
    I'd say that the Ukrainian environment when it comes to 
healthcare is one that's, for the moment, in terms of 
humanitarian access, is permissive, in the sense that the 
Ministry of Health of Ukraine is very supportive of our work 
and has, under these exceptional circumstances, authorized all 
foreign medical professionals to be able to clinically work 
here in Ukraine. So, we're sending in surgeons and doctors in 
places like Kostiantynivka, Bakhmut that are barely 15 
kilometers from the front line, and they're able to work quite 
effectively with good support from the Ministry of Health and 
the local authorities.
    One of the issues that we're seeing today is that, in the 
east, because of the insecurity and the shelling in civilian 
areas, actually, a lot of the hospital staff have had to leave 
because they're taking their families out, and we're reduced to 
maybe 10, 15 percent of the health staff left in some of the 
key hospitals. It's true that the population is also reduced 
there, but basically the health service provision has 
drastically reduced.
    And this is why we and others have been moving patients out 
from saturated hospitals in the east to the west. But the west 
is also now reaching a crisis point. Some of the hospitals are 
basically at full capacity and are looking at how they can 
perhaps move patients out of the country or to other parts of 
the country.
    So, the general healthcare system here in Ukraine has 
responded reasonably well and with great determination and 
courage. And we have to admit that 99 percent of the response 
when it comes to healthcare is done by the Ukrainians, not the 
international organizations. We add perhaps that little extra 1 
percent.
    And they're really under huge pressure. And the human-
resources issue, the issue of security around hospitals close 
to the front lines is really coming to the fore. And we're only 
100 days--``only''--well, 100 days into this conflict, and it's 
quite worrying to think what will lie ahead for the healthcare 
system and the hospitals, especially in the east, close to the 
front lines.
    Mr. Lynch. Right. That phase is something that we need to 
be thinking about right now, when this conflict is eventually 
over.
    In closing, I just want to say how thankful I am, how 
grateful I am for, really, the full-spectrum perspective that 
yourselves and Chef Andres were able to offer the committee and 
we appreciate the way you have helped inform us in terms of the 
decisions that we're going to have to make and continue to make 
regarding the situation in Ukraine and other countries around 
the globe that are being impacted by this conflict. So, we are 
really grateful for your expertise and your perspective.
    I want to thank you for your remarks.
    I want to commend my colleagues for their participation and 
some great questions.
    With that, without objection, all members will have five 
legislative days within which to submit additional written 
questions for the witnesses through the chair, which will be 
forwarded to the witnesses for their response.
    I just ask our witnesses to please respond as promptly as 
you are able, if you do receive further questions.
    Mr. Lynch. This hearing is now adjourned. Thank you and 
have a great day.
    [Whereupon, at 11:12 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]