Ambassador Hall Visits Ukraine

By Kristina Onder, HHI Volunteer

At age 82, one would think that Tony Hall would be content to rest on his laurels. The former Congressman from Dayton and Ambassador to the United Nations certainly has plenty of laurels on which to rest. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize three times and a recipient of the Romanian Medal of Honor, Hall also received the 1992 Silver World Food Day Medal from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the UNICEF 1995 Children's Legislative Advocate Award.

Tony Hall, National Prayer Breakfast, Kyiv, Ukraine

However, Hall continues to work tirelessly for humanitarian causes. On June 29, 2024, Hall was invited to speak by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to represent the United States at the National Prayer Breakfast in Kyiv. Hall and other leaders from around the world gathered to

show their support for the Ukrainian people. “It was a tough trip,” Hall admitted. “It took 23 hours to get there. I took a plane from Miami to Frankfurt, another to Warsaw, and from Warsaw, we drove. There were roadblocks and checkpoints along the way, which were tense.”

There was another tense moment during the Prayer Breakfast itself. “Right after President Zylensky spoke, there was an air raid warning,” Hall said. “His security team and advisers surrounded him very quickly and got him out of there, but the rest of us stayed and just continued on.” During the rest of the trip, Hall said he felt safe, despite ongoing sirens and air raids.

 “Kyiv, the capital, was well protected. They had an air defense system, which of course, the United States pretty much gave them. I did see bombed out places where an occasional drone or plane had gotten through. “Unfortunately, I saw a children’s hospital that was bombed, wheretwenty-two children died. They bomb the most innocent of places,” Hall remarked, shaking his head.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. “It’s been a major victory for Ukraine to be able to repel such a large force for two years. Now the Ukrainian people want peace,” Hall said. “They have seen a good portion of their eastern part of their country destroyed. And it’s been a brutal war. More than 500, 000 people have died thus far and 500 more people die every single day.“