'Our mindset is never leave an American behind': Project Dynamo helps extract US citizens and residents from Ukraine

Project Dynamo, which has been extracting people from Afghanistan, is also helping to get people out of Ukraine, where Russia has launched an invasion.

"We had a group of people that were on the ground we had identified that wanted to get out, especially if things went sideways," Project Dynamo spokesperson James Judge told Fox News. "Bryan Stern, who is on our team, could feel the explosions in Kyiv and said, 'Alright, we need to go, we need to get out of here.'"

NBC News reported that the group's first bus of evacuees contained 23 people escaping from Ukraine. Fox News noted that the bus included U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

President Biden indicated earlier this month that if Russia invaded Ukraine, he would not send U.S. troops in to rescue Americans.

Judge said that "when the Biden administration said that they weren't going to do it, it was kind of like, 'Okay, here we go.'"

The Biden administration came under heavy criticism last year for presiding over a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and then announcing the completion of the withdrawal even as Americans remained stranded in the country.

"Our mindset is never leave an American behind," Judge noted, according to Fox News.