Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has provided more than $1.3 billion in assistance to Ukraine. This year, it plans to spend several hundred million more to accelerate humanitarian demining and infrastructure recovery, as well as to support farmers, severely wounded servicemen, and children.
In terms of both the scale and the number of areas of support, Buffett’s American foundation has become the largest private investor in Ukraine. Its contributions to Ukraine’s recovery have exceeded those of some EU countries. Today, it is the leading charitable foundation from the United States and Europe in supporting Ukrainians.
Howard Buffett, 71, is an American businessman, farmer, and philanthropist. He is the son of one of the world’s wealthiest and most successful investors, 95-year-old Warren Buffett. His father founded and led the international holding company Berkshire Hathaway, whose assets comprise businesses from Apple and Bank of America to insurance companies, energy market operators, and airlines.
Suspilne spoke with the younger Buffett on the sidelines of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk. On 25–26 June, around 5,000 government officials, business leaders, representatives of financial institutions, and international organizations gathered there to agree on new projects and sign agreements.
Howard Buffett came to the conference because Ukraine’s reconstruction is now, in effect, one of the main tasks his foundation is focused on.
Family traditions of philanthropy
It was his father who taught Howard, his middle son, several life-changing lessons. One of the first came when Warren Buffett bought him a farm. The son had to pay his father rent out of the farm’s total income. The idea was to teach Howard discipline, patience, and commitment to work.
Howard also inherited from his father the family tradition of philanthropy. And with it, a clear understanding: investments should only be made after you check on the ground that they are worthwhile. Today, the younger Buffett says he is investing in peace in Ukraine.
“It's not charitable activity. I mean, it can look like that, but the truth is, we're investing in Ukraine's future. We believe in Ukraine”, the philanthropist emphasizes.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion, Howard Buffett has practically been living between two countries. During this time, he has visited frontline and border areas 26 times. He says this was not difficult for him, as he had previously visited conflict zones around the world. There, he helped farmers, supported young people, and took artistic photographs to preserve the memory of those events.
The philanthropist admits that some of the photographs he has taken in Ukraine and in other countries are too painful. “I have taken some photographs that I was asked not to use because they were too graphic,” he says. He explains his passion this way: “I think it is hard for one photograph to really change something. I feel like the photographs are designed to keep everything alive in people's minds”.
For Howard, photography is also a tool for learning more about people and their experiences. “It's how I meet people that can tell me more about what's happening,” he adds. For his team, however, it also creates additional security challenges. Once, near the front line Buffett and his accompanying staff had to take cover from Russian shelling.
Ukrainian friends and projects
Howard Buffett’s only godchild is a Ukrainian child. More broadly, many of his close friends today are Ukrainians. He met many of them after the war had already begun.
Warren Buffett, whose fortune exceeds $300 billion, once noted that the measure of a person’s success is not how much money they have, but how many people would be willing to hide them if they were facing mortal danger. It is in such a situation that friendship, trust, and respect are truly tested. According to the investor’s son, his bond with his Ukrainian friends is similar.
“I feel like not only would they do whatever it took to protect me and help me, but I would do whatever it took to protect and help them,” Howard says. “To be able to say that, many things have to come together — because you need to trust people, respect them, and believe in them.”
Current projects in Ukraine differ greatly from the work Buffett’s team does in other countries, he says. Elsewhere, they usually had enough time to study a problem, think through a solution, plan its implementation, and gradually carry out what they had set out to do. Everything was done step by step. In Ukraine, the situation is different.
“Here we are responding to events that are happening right now. We cannot plan this in advance. And we have not made investments of this kind before,” Buffett explains. “For example, here we are building a bridge, bomb shelters — for the first time. Usually, that is not what we do.”
Another example of unique tasks is the restoration of the Factor-Druk printing complex in Kharkiv, one of the largest in Europe. On 23 May 2024, a Russian S-300 missile struck its bookbinding workshop. Seven employees were killed and 16 were injured. Around 50,000 books were destroyed.
“We didn't do that because we thought we should contribute to the publishing industry. We did it because it was Russia's attack on Ukraine's culture. It was an attack on trying to keep children's books from children. It was an attack on Ukraine's society,” Howard explains, describing the criteria for selecting projects.
Other examples include the foundation’s projects in Bucha, implemented after the city was liberated from Russian occupation. Buffett’s foundation helped rebuild the destroyed Vokzalna Street. In the same city, a central kitchen for children’s meals was opened with funding from the American philanthropist. It prepares healthy hot meals for more than 10,000 schoolchildren.
In addition, in June 2025, the foundation provided Ukrainian border guards with engineering equipment.
Howard emphasizes that direct communication with Ukrainians is what helped him see the country’s potential. “Once we arrived here, I would say the Ukrainians are responsible for a large part of our investment because it's an amazing country,” the American philanthropist says.
Among his contacts in Ukraine, for example, are service members with amputations. His foundation supports Superhumans, a prosthetics, reconstructive surgery, and rehabilitation center for people affected by the war.
This circle of communication, together with his trips to Ukraine, gives him an understanding of what kind of help people need and where exactly it is needed. In 2023, Howard Buffett traveled from Kharkiv to the village of Borova, located 10–20 kilometers from the front line. Although he saw houses destroyed by Russia and widespread devastation, he was thinking first and foremost about the people who had once lived there — about their habits, memories, sense of home, and future.
“You're driving through villages and towns. Everything is destroyed - the church, the school, the businesses, and homes. When I drive through it, I'm not even thinking about how you physically rebuild it. I'm thinking about the family that had to leave their home behind, and about the church services that are never going to take place again. Where are they going for those services? And the kids that can't study in school any longer, where are they? Do they have what they need?”
Howard Buffett is among those convinced that the outcome of Russia’s war against Ukraine will affect not only Ukrainians and Europeans. It will affect future generations around the world. In this context, he is quite critical of his own country’s readiness — the United States — to counter modern security threats. “Our entire country is unprepared for the kind of war that's being fought between Ukraine and Russia. We are not prepared to deal with the kind of drone warfare that has developed, and we should be learning that from Ukraine,” he believes.
In Howard Buffett’s view, his country should also be involved in providing Ukraine with security guarantees after the war ends. “The majority of the American people support Ukraine. We have a political situation that delivers some different results, but I can tell you that Americans understand that Russia is our enemy. They understand that Ukraine is fighting for their freedom and their democracy which we did 250 years ago,” Howard Buffett concludes.
He is convinced that, after reconstruction, Ukraine has a chance to become one of Europe’s leading countries and enrich it with its innovations and experience.
From the front line to the farm
For now, Buffett’s foundation is planning new projects in Ukraine in partnership with local organizations. And in between his philanthropic work and business affairs, Howard Buffett personally works as a farmer.
“I don't care how much I'm doing, what I'm doing, I always wanna be able to get in the planter in the spring and plant my corn, and I always wanna be able to get in the combine and harvest my corn in the fall”.
In Ukraine, Buffett also has work connected to farming. One of the combines his foundation provided under the Harvest of Victory program was hit by a drone. This happened in Sumy Oblast. The next day, another combine came under fire in Kharkiv Oblast.
So among Howard Buffett’s immediate plans now is not only to harvest his corn in the fields of Illinois, but also to decide whether protective nets and electronic warfare systems should be installed on some of the combines he has provided, which are currently operating near the front line.
