The relay of the Kyiv School of Economics Charitable Foundation (KSE Foundation) in support of the military defense of Ukraine will be taken over by the new Charitable Fund for the Development of Defense Capability of Ukraine (DefDev), said the president of KSHE University Tymofiy Mylovanov in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
“The defense-development fund, or the defense development fund of Ukraine, has appeared in orbit as a separate institution. We transferred all the funding from the KSE Foundation, which is related to the defense industry, there, so that it is not related to education,” he said.
“The fact that this fund is outside the vertical structure of KSHE has freed their hands a little so that they can be aggressive,” added the president of the university.
According to him, another initiative of the KSHE community was the public organization “Kyiv Global Outreach” (Kyiv Global Outreach, Kyiv GO), which was founded at the beginning of this year, “which is engaged in advocacy and lobbying, for example, in the United States of America and in Europe, and in Brussels”.
“It is completely open, there are contracts… It is necessary to work more systematically with voters (abroad – IF-U), and not with politics. Politicians still respond more to voters, so Ukraine needs to work with voters. It is more difficult, but we are learning how to do it,” Mylovanov explained.
He added that “Rusnia” tries to influence voters abroad “from morning to night”, and Ukraine should also fight for them.
“But, unlike Rusna, not with explosions and special operations, but through official channels,” the president of KSHE stressed, noting that Kyiv GO is part of the infrastructure of such a struggle.
According to him, KSHE is active abroad, only recently he and his colleagues took part in events in London, Berlin, and Brussels.
“That is, we are trying to be present globally and also turn into a Think Tank…” – noted Mylovanov.
He added that the business school, which is also actively moving towards innovation, is also very important for the development of KSHE.
“We have hackathons, there are certain investments. We are now thinking about how to properly make such a small fund. We ourselves went into some funds related, in particular, to defense-tech and not only,” said the president of KSHE.
He called spin-offs (separation of a subsidiary company from the parent company – IF-U) as another example of such development.
“People form companies, somewhere we give (money for) small interest, somewhere we just help with an accelerator. We already have students who earn their own money… We are currently experimenting a lot with this. In general, I want all students to study and work, so that modern work is part of our education. We provide a very flexible environment,” Mylovanov explained.
According to the annual report KSE Foundation, in 2023 it received $46.91 million in contributions from private benefactors, Ukrainian and international companies, which is almost 15% more than in 2022. Of these, $38.20 million went to the fund’s American account, and $8.71 million went to the Ukrainian account. In 2023, the KSE Foundation prioritized the contributions of benefactors to the support and technical support of defenders and the strategic development of defense capabilities, including military training and innovation development. An important direction of the Fund’s investments in 2023 was the support of rescue missions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the replenishment of the fleet of evacuation vehicles.
As stated on the website, the new DefDev fund focuses its work on the supply of equipment, devices and goods for saving lives and effective intelligence operations: “every contribution is an investment in the success of special operations to fight GUR and the scaling of intelligence capabilities.”
At the same time, it is noted that the KSE Foundation still has an “educational DNA”.
“The fund will focus its work on helping Ukrainians, developing education and science, creating an innovative foundation for the restoration of a strong Ukraine: these are projects for arranging shelters in educational institutions, restoring infrastructure, educational scholarships, grant programs, etc.,” its website explains.
