$300 million in new philanthropic giving earmarked for Ukraine in 2024 by family of Lifestyles Magazine/Meaningful Influence cover subject

Howard G. Buffett, the son of American billionaire Warren Buffett, has announced that his philanthropic foundation will donate $300 million in aid to Ukraine this year.

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation has already donated over $500 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The combined funds exceed the humanitarian aid contributions of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Buffett praised President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership and said it would be a mistake for the United States to withdraw support for Ukraine at this critical time.

“Anybody who feels that Ukraine doesn’t need our support is failing to recognize what Zelensky is leading his country against, and it’s an incredible force that he’s up against,” Buffett said.

Buffett’s foundation has helped repair agricultural infrastructure in Ukraine, aid demining efforts, and provide essential supplies to healthcare facilities. Funding for the foundation comes primarily from Howard’s father Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway CEO and seventh-richest person in the world.

“When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, I felt like it was one of those situations where you have to step up right away, and you have to step up big,” Howard Buffett said.

Buffett has traveled to Ukraine during the war and met with Zelensky twice, in 2022 and again in December 2023. He called Russia’s invasion the “largest humanitarian crisis” he’s seen in his life, and said he feared support for Kyiv could waver amid “Ukraine fatigue.”

“People lose interest over time, so keeping this going is tough,” Buffett said.

“And it’s going to be one of the biggest mistakes that the United States makes historically if we don’t continue to support Ukraine.”

When he was a boy, Howard Buffett loved to play in the dirt.

He even planted corn in his family’s backyard when he was only 5, and he’s always loved big machines. So it’s no surprise he ended up in agriculture.

Buffett says he considers himself a farmer first. “But he is also the CEO of a foundation dedicated to finding solutions to world hunger and has traveled to 130 countries looking for new ways to help people feed their families, while at the same time taking care of the environment,” David said.

The son of Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest and most successful investors, Howard Buffett began farming in Nebraska on land rented from his father.

David talks to the Decatur resident about the farm he operates in Illinois as well as three research farms operated by his foundation.

Hoping to help people in developing countries make a better life for their families, he created the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, funded with money from his father. In 2000, he began funding conservation and food security projects around the world.

Buffett has published eight books on conservation and wildlife, among them 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World.

His son, Howard Warren Buffett, a philanthropist, political consultant, political scientist, and writer, was the subject of a 2012 exclusive cover story in Lifestyles Magazine/Meaningful Influence.