Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Arnold, a former Special Forces officer with three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has spent extensive time near the front lines advising the Ukrainian military (at his own expense). Gen. Arnold is a nationally recognized expert on the war in Ukraine and has been quoted extensively in the Washington Post, among other publications.
But Gen. Arnold has another mission. Ukrainian medics were educated by physicians in five medical schools in Ukraine until three were destroyed and one severely damaged by the Russians during the 2022 invasion. The Ukrainian Military Medical Academy is responsible for educating medics, and, to address this critical shortage of first responders, the Academy is establishing 20+ geographically dispersed training sites plus mobile training teams where physicians will educate medics near or at their units of assignment. Gen. Arnold is raising the private-sector funds to support the training and equipping of medics so that Ukrainian troops will be more likely to survive their wounds and reduce the number of limb amputations by over 50%.
The critical shortage of thoroughly trained medics is no accident. Russia has since the start of the war aimed artillery and missiles at the exact same spot it struck around 30 minutes earlier, often hitting first responders who had deployed at the scene. It’s a tactic, called a “double tap” in military jargon, that is illegal under the Geneva Conventions – and causing death and injury to emergency workers. This can only be described as unconscionable.
Simply put, Mark can’t do it alone. Each of the sites and teams will cost over $20,000, and Mark estimates that over $2 million is needed to fully fund this mission.
