“Israel has AIPAC. Ukraine will need an American Ukraine Public Affairs Committee.”
The Hill, April 26, 2024
Who we are
American Ukraine Committee exists so that Americans who support Ukraine can be effective with Congress.
We are a bipartisan 501(c)(4) membership organization. We represent American citizens, not the Ukrainian government, and we do not coordinate with any foreign government.
Here is how it works. We find people who care about Ukraine and sign them up. We train the most committed of them as Super Advocates: people with a personal relationship to one Congressional office. We give them the research, a policy paper written for that office, and the name of the staffer to call. They walk in prepared, and the office asks them back.
We keep the policy list short on purpose: weapons for Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, and Russian money to pay for it. We work out which committee or office can actually move each one, and we go there with one ask at a time.
Bipartisan, on purpose
In April 2024 The Hill put it in one line: "Israel has AIPAC. Ukraine will need an American Ukraine Public Affairs Committee." A clear majority of Americans support Ukraine. So does a bipartisan majority of Congress. But support alone does not produce a bill, a vote or a dollar. That takes people in the building, every week, with better information than anyone else in the room. American Ukraine Committee was founded that year to be those people.
Every Ukraine bill needs both parties. The 2026 sanctions law passed because Senators Graham and Blumenthal carried it together: 86 votes in the Senate, 262 in the House. A bill owned by one party is a press release. We work with Republicans and Democrats who support the American Ukraine relationship, and we don't let our members pick a team.
Two organizations, one purpose. American Ukraine Committee (amukr.org) does the research, the policy, the training and the direct contact with Congress. American Ukraine PAC (amukrpac.org) is a separate federal PAC that uses campaign finance to build the relationships our Advocates then use. They share a mission and nothing else: separate books, separate data, separate rules.
Jed Sunden founded the Kyiv Post and Korrespondent.net and built KP Media into the largest internet company in Ukraine, taking it public on the Ukrainian Stock Exchange in 2007 and selling it in 2011. As publisher, Jed wrote weekly editorials on Ukrainian politics for both publications. In 2000 President Kuchma's security service barred him from the country over his journalism. He was at the forefront of countering Russian disinformation campaigns in Ukraine in the 2000s. He served fifteen years as Vice President of the Kyiv Jewish community under Rabbi Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine.
In 2024, Jed founded the American Ukraine Committee and American Ukraine PAC. He and his wife Olga are active donors to Razom, the Ukrainian Catholic University, the Sternenko and Prytula drone funds, and the Jewish community of Ukraine. He lives in New York.
Write to us: info@amukr.org. Write to Jed: jed@amukr.org.
Jed Sunden, Founder and Director
