Ben Dusing 

Ben Dusing is a former big-firm attorney, federal prosecutor, and accomplished white-collar criminal defense attorney in the United States who felt called to help the people of Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, and, after a multi-year journey helping the humanitarian effort for the people of Ukraine in the various “hot spots,” ultimately co-founded World Aid Runners, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit in the USA.  A rare Russian-speaking American who previously lived and worked in Russia on multiple occasions before attending law school, Dusing perceived that he was uniquely qualified to assist the humanitarian effort and traveled to the busiest border crossing in Medyka, Poland, several weeks after the invasion to help the refugees arriving there.  His experience there confirmed that he could be uniquely helpful and changed his life.  Over the course of the subsequent two years following the outbreak of the full-scale war, Dusing felt called to help and came to work full-time on helping the Ukrainian people in the various “hot spots” – becoming a so-called “frontline humanitarian” – and supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces, where appropriate.  His journey took him to various places – helping provide and deliver humanitarian goods and services in places like Medyka (Poland), Kyiv, Borodyanka, Irpin, Khariv, the Kharkiv and Donbas regions, and ultimately Kherson – doing different things, generally delivery of humanitarian aid to newly-liberated populations and evacuations of the non-ambulatory from areas in and around the conflict zone.  Several months after the full-scale invasion, Dusing’s long-time friend and colleague, John Gardner, joined him. Since then the two have worked effectively as a two man team.  Dusing’s service with Gardner has been highlighted in various articles and publications – in America, other countries, and Ukraine.  While primarily humanitarian, their service has also included support of the Ukrainian Armed Services, including supplying and delivering necessary equipment to brigades fighting in the Donbas and Kherson regions.  Dusing’s and Gardner’s service also includes doing – for a limited time – so-called “second-line medical evacuations” for combat brigades during fighting in places like Bakhmut, Ukraine.  Ultimately, Dusing’s and Gardner’s journey led them to Kherson, Ukraine, the only big city occupied by the Russians during the war and the only major population center in artillery range (following the city’s liberation).  Dusing’s and Gardner’s services were requested in Kherson by a local volunteer group after Kherson was liberated, and the tandem – then based in Kharkiv, Ukraine, serving the previously occupied territories in the Kharkiv and Donbas regions in the east – arrived in Kherson for the first time in January 2023.  Seeing that the humanitarian situation there was, by far, the most serious in all of Ukraine and being uniquely qualified to assist, Dusing and Gardner decided to relocate their growing operation – then comprised of three elite humanitarian vehicles, including two rare ambulances with stretcher beds – full-time to Kherson.  Dusing and Gardner have lived and worked in Kherson ever since, returning occasionally to attend to their affairs in the United States and raise awareness and funds.  After serving in Kherson by supporting the local organizations in Kherson – there were no foreign humanitarian organizations full-time resident in the city, given the unique level of danger – Dusing and his “charitable partner,” fellow American lawyer Willian J. Waggonner of Santa Fe, New Mexico, formerly founded World Aid Runners, Inc., setting up a stand-alone office in downtown Kherson and hiring full-time staff, thereby establishing the first (and still the only) foreign humanitarian organization full-time resident (living and working every day) in Kherson.  The office is located in the city center. It is focused on serving the population nearest the conflict – the city center and so-called “coastal zone” (riverbank) areas –who have endured suffering of a kind and duration, unlike any other major population in Ukraine.  Currently, the World Aid Runners “base camp”/HQ in Kherson – located just over one kilometer from the front, on the so-called “right bank” of the Dneiper River (the Russians continuing to occupy the so-called “left bank,” on the other side of the river – includes a secret office and corporate apartment just off Kherson’s main thoroughfare, a full-time staff of two Americans (Dusing and Gardner) and two local Khersonskii, and no less than four state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line humanitarian vehicles comprising one of the most formidable in all of Ukraine and capable of performing the full range of humanitarian services. Although the organization provides a long list of humanitarian services, a core service – and by far its best-known – is its operation of the FREE STORE AT THE FRONT, a secret “free store” where the local population can come to receive basic food, medicine, hygiene products, and clothes.  The FREE STORE AT THE FRONT is 100% supported by humanitarian aid donated by Dusing’s vast network of contacts throughout Ukraine and Europe and (to a small extent) donations of funds by the organization’s growing number of supporters worldwide.  World Aid Runners remains the only foreign humanitarian organization based and full-time resident in Kherson, and the city was recently effectively closed to foreigners (subject to limited exceptions).  World Aid Runners has long played an important role in hosting foreign volunteer organizations (both formally and informally) and assisting humanitarian volunteers in accessing and navigating Kherson – i.e., helping other volunteers and groups help Kherson.   In 2024, both Dusing and Gardner were granted lawful residency in Kherson and are believed to be the only Americans granted lawful resident status registered in Kherson. 

 

Dusing’s role on the ground is all-inclusive.  He is generally responsible for World Aid Runners’ operations in Ukraine, operating out of the organization’s Kherson “base.”  However, living and working primarily in Kherson when in-country, Dusing’s work routinely takes him to the other parts of Ukraine, especially its major cities.  In connection with humanitarian business, Dusing and his other team members are routinely in Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv, Ukraine.  Dusing and Gardner also maintain a vast network of contacts in eastern Ukraine, where they began their humanitarian journey, initially based in Kharkiv (where they lived and worked for approximately five months over several trips).  At the highest level, Dusing’s role is to find and requisition as many resources from the international humanitarian community as possible to help the neediest population in Ukraine (the people of Kherson) through distribution at the FREE STORE AT THE FRONT.  Overwhelmingly privately financed through the use of Dusing’s funds and operating independently and autonomously – although boasting important collations and affiliates with other humanitarian organizations formally registered in Ukraine – the massive quantities of essential humanitarian assistance to be provided through the FREE STORE must be in the form of in-kind donations, the arrangements and requisition of which requires frequent travel throughout all of Ukraine (most especially its major cities). 

 

W.A.R. Travel Ukraine is intended to capitalize on the skills, knowledge, and network acquired over the course of Dusing’s extensive experience in Ukraine to facilitate war-time, humanitarian travel Ukraine to both (1) facilitate international volunteerism and direct support of the Ukrainian Armed Services, and (2) and serve as a stable financing mechanism to support the continued operation and expansion of the World Aid Runners’ humanitarian efforts in Kherson, including most especially the long-term operation and expansion of the FREE STORE AT THE FRONT.  While technically a stand-alone entity and business venture, the express purpose of W.A.R. Travel Ukraine is to support and facilitate the ongoing humanitarian and military-related “do-gooders” of World Aid Runners in Kherson and, more generally, throughout Ukraine.