Projects

Each project is driven by three main objectives: delivering life-saving supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces, bringing hope and solidarity to the Ukrainian people, and advocating for the mission to inform the Dutch public about Ukraine’s stance against the Russian aggression—and how this, in turn, helps protect us all.

Schrijvers voor Oekraïne (Writers for Ukraine)

A group of Dutch writers created the initiative ‘Writers for Ukraine’ which performs in theaters throughout the country reading their works on the war in Ukraine. They write books, give lectures and publish articles in Dutch newspapers and weeklies and appear on national radio and television to tell the true and often personal view on the events in Ukraine, as an antidote to fake news and Russian propaganda. Advocacy is one of the 3 main tasks of Protect Ukraine.

The aim is to keep the focus on Ukraine in times that the war is slipping out of people’s minds. Most of these authors know Ukraine (and Russia) intimately and traveled with Protect Ukraine as a volunteer to Ukraine. We try to enlarge this group. ‘Schrijvers voor Oekraïne’ consists at this moment of Jelle Brandt Corstius, Maurits Chabot, Maarten Doorman, Daan Heerma van Voss, Florian Jacobs, Olaf Koens, Iris Koppe, Jaap Scholten, Lisa Weeda en Tommy Wieringa.

The income of the theater events is donated to the Stichting Protect Ukraine.

Dignitas

Dignitas is our dream partner in Ukraine: inventive, state of the art, creative, flexible and highly effective. In an excellent way they are what Protect Ukraine aspires to be: a fast track NGO and an example of how to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In the fall of 2023 we started to cooperate with Dignitas, a Ukrainian NGO founded by Lyuba Shipovich and Maria Berlinska. Dignitas is supporting and bringing together the Ukrainian people and military – above all its an ecosystem for sharing knowledge, sourcing spare parts, drone infrastructure, technological development, training and supporting drone operators and supplying drone infrastructure to the Armed Forces, the State Emergency Service and medical services. They do so in cooperation with the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

So far, they have fully trained more than 90,000 drone pilots (more people than the complete French army), the biggest drone pilot educator in the world. Ukraine has the ambition to have in the near future an army of a million drone pilots, Dignitas is the most important partner to reach this goal. At the 12 training grounds aspiring pilots receive both theoretical lectures and practice using various technological equipment, including multi-rotor drones, under the supervision of experienced instructors.

One of the branches of Dignitas is Protect – these are the projects done together with and financed by Protect Ukraine. We are proud to support with Dignitas the 53rd, 63rd, 72nd and 93rd brigades with training and the complete needed drone infrastructure: starlinks, antennas, ecoflows, generators, spare parts, etc.

We have done a few pilot projects with Dignitas: we have financed the very first mobile drones repair workshop, with four workstations with microscopes, high pressure air, etc. so drones can be researched and repaired close to the front. We sponsor the first special training and equipping of 50 female drone pilots. Military commanders are still protective about their female soldiers and put them often in less dangerous positions like kitchen, administration, logistics. With Dignitas we try to change that and encourage women to become drone pilots and specially motivate commanders to send and allow female soldiers to have the training, for that reason they get the complete kit (men do not receive the equipment). And we support and finance the building of mobile showers and washing cabins, with two washing machines, two dryers, a woodstove, a water tank, a waterpump and a generator. Research shows that the biggest source of depression and loss of motivation under soldiers is lack of sleep and the inability to wash oneself.

Convoys

The first goods – trauma kits, night vision and 300 helmets bought from the Italian army and delivered while Germany as a country after long deliberations had just brought 5000 helmets to Ukraine to defend itself against Russian aggression – were transported by Ukrainian volunteers (who we visited in Poland and still cooperate with) from Poland to hotspots like Chernihiv, Korysten, Kharkiv and Mariupol.

Our focus has been, starting from March 2022, to bring the Armed Forces of Ukraine what is requested to places where it is needed badly. In May 2022 Jaap drove for the first time to Kyiv and Chernihiv in a pick up truck loaded with water pumps, drills, chainsaws and other tools to repair infrastructure. He repeated that a few times before starting in late June with Dirck and a few friends Protect Ukraine.In Februari 2023 they financed six cars for a convoy (Convoy 0) organized by Angels for Ukraine. When this NGO terminated convoys Protect Ukraine continued bringing SUV’s and pick up trucks to Ukrainian units. The SUV’s are often used as evacuation cars for the wounded and the pick up trucks often get a machinegun and are used by mobile units to shoot down Shaheed drones and protect cities and civilians from drone attacks.

Between June 2023 and October 2024 PU has done six bigger convoys and in between brought smaller amounts of cars to Ukraine. In total up till now we brought about 65 cars, including a few vans, two ambulances on special request, many evacuation cars, one deep cooling truck for the deceased, plus an argocat for evacuation of wounded through water and mud and 40 electric motorbikes for reconnaissance and silent logistics.

We leave all cars behind for the different units and bring with the convoys trauma kits, medical aid, vests (our vests with plates level IV are loved, they weight 8 kilos, while the metal plates of the Armed Forces of Ukraine weight 18 kilos, the reason many soldiers get vertebrae problems), helmets, water filters, sleeping bags and other items requested.

By delivering the cars and goods deep into Ukraine we also try to bring solidarity and hope. The meetings with volunteers and military are often very joyful, a small distraction in tough times. It makes the people we cooperate with in the bombed cities and the soldiers we meet realize they are not completely isolated and forgotten by the people in Western Europe.

Children's Summer Camps 2024 and other humanitarian projects

Dreamers UA is a small NGO focused on supporting children of fallen defenders and children of soldiers who are longtime at the front by organizing camps in Transkarpatia where the children can forget the sorrow and be children again. We supported in the summer of 2024 two of the camps and financed all tents, mattresses and sleeping bags needed. Dreamers UA also organizes camps for widows of fallen soldiers. We financed the materials needed for these camps: beamer, computer, sound system etc.

In 2022 we provided the materials to produce 100 camouflage nets in Poland by mostly Ukrainian women and children. We did this through the volunteer organization Fundacja Ptach via singer and musician and personal friend Anastasia. The camouflage nets protect the soldiers close to the front and producing the nets is healing for the refugees and a way to be together and support their husbands and fathers.

Nebesna Kara

Nebesna Kara (Punishment from Heaven) has been supported by us since March 2022, when a team of drone racers in Lviv decided to dedicate their knowledge to build drones for the army. We helped them to set up a workshop which was twice expanded over the past 2.5 years and equipped it with computers, 3D-printers and other tools. Today, Nebesna Kara builds around 100-150 fixed wing drones per month which can fly a distance of up to 70 kilometers behind enemy lines. We also helped them to set up a drone pilot school. Recently, Nebesna Kara started to build UGV’s (Unmanned Ground Vehicles) for de-mining purposes. Through them we supply drones to the 36th Marine Brigade in Kherson and the 28th Mechanised Brigade and the 82nd Air Assault Brigade, both in Zaporozhye.

Kyiv Rugby Union

The Kyiv Rugby Union is a perfect, reliable and personal network to support and distribute to individual soldiers and their units. Many of the Dutch volunteers helping Protect Ukraine are former or active rugby players (many from Ascrum (Amsterdam) and from DSR-C (Delft)) so it was logical to make contact with the Kyiv Rugby Union. They were very suspicious at first, but after we visited them in Kyiv and handed over the first car and equipment, a strong cooperation grew from there. Out of 80 active rugby players of Kyiv’s rugby clubs more than 50 are fighting at the front. We support these heroes and their units with cars, electric motorbikes, trauma kits, helmets, vests and protective materials they desperately need. They provide us regularly with precise feedback of how and when the goods are delivered to whom and what else they need. On Facebook you can find the individual stories of these defenders at Rugbyplayers4Rugbyplayers.

Kolo-Fly

We have worked together with KOLO-FLY since April 2023 supporting their drone development department and pilot school. One of the projects is the Titan, an ambulance drone which can evacuate wounded soldiers from the red and grey zone. Evacuation of the wounded with cars is very hard now, evacuation cars and medics are a prime target for the Russians.

KOLO FLY has an excellent network of contacts in Ukraine. Through them we also help units of the Armed Forces with cars, electric motorbikes, generators, medical aid, trauma kits and other requested materials.

Through KOLO-FLY we sometimes get surprising requests, like for a towing cable capable of towing a load of 60,000 kilos. We found the cables in a Dutch port (one for 60,000 and one even for 90,000 kilo’s) and 4 days after the request reached us handed them over to the artillery commander who needed them to tow broken artillery to the workshop. Together with De Leeuw Kyiv we delivered in May 2024 five truckloads containing 500.000 kilo of fishing nets from Dutch fishermen to frontline units as a protection against drones, saving lives.

Military hospital Kyiv and other medical aid

Starting from March 2022 to Mariupol, we deliver with every convoy trauma kits to the Ukrainian Military consisting of 1 SOFT tourniquet, 2 Foxseal chest seals, 1 chitosam hemostatic gauze and 1 emergency bandage. Every soldier, firefighter, policeman or border guard needs to have at least one trauma kit on him (and preferable 2 or 3 tourniquets when fighting on the frontline) but there is a shortage of them on the frontlines. The kit contains the essentials to save lives when a victim is strongly bleeding or a shot or shrapnel through the lungs. Until October 2024 Protect Ukraine brought nearly 2000 trauma kits to Ukraine.

We also bring stretchers, braces, monitors and other medical essentials which were donated to us by Dutch hospitals. On the first two convoys we made the mistake of taking everything to Ukraine that the hospitals offered us, but we changed our policy – after seeing the tired looks of doctors and rescue workers when unpacking boxes with thousands of face masks – and now only bring what is requested.

The cooperation with the Military Hospital in Kyiv started in January 2024 after we received from a medical institute in the Netherlands a large Ilizarov set, a medical device developed in the Soviet Union to treat injured persons with extensive limb deformity injuries. With the set, which was generously donated to us and has a value of € 200,000, 40-50 patients can be treated simultaneously. One of our volunteers is an orthopedic surgeon and participated on 12 February 2024 in a symposium on the treatment of war injuries for Ukrainian Army trauma surgeons in the Military Hospital in Kyiv.

Bloodbank

Protect Ukraine wishes to make a sustainable impact saving lives in Ukraine by improving the healthcare system. Especially by improving the quality and quantity of the blood supply. Blood supply services in Ukraine are dispersed throughout the country and patients in need of blood are often forced to look for blood donors themselves. Even before the war an estimated 2/3 of patients did not receive blood in time or at all. The war, since 2014 and the full scale invasion of 2022, have made the shortcomings of the blood supply even more evident. The lack of a steady blood supply is a problem for all people, from the mothers giving birth, cancer patients needing treatment, people who need operations and the soldiers on the battlefield. All have a greater risk of losing their lives because of the lack of sufficient blood supply in Ukraine.

Protect Ukraine aims to increase the quantity and quality of blood supply in Ukraine by creating a new blood center in Kyiv. Protect Ukraine works with a Ukrainian partner, Donor UA, and Sanquin in the Netherlands. Donor UA is a price winning Ukrainian NGO who recruits blood donors (Ukrainian NGO for blood donors recruitment – ДонорUA). At this point they have already recruited over 170.000 new blood donors in Ukraine. Now they only need a blood donation center.

We aim to create a blood center which adheres to European and Dutch quality standards. To ensure the quality of the business and health care processes Sanquin (the Dutch blood supplier) has agreed to work on this project. They will advise Donor UA and Protect Ukraine on all decisions concerning the quality of the blood supply and train the health care professionals in Ukraine.

To start this project Protect Ukraine is still looking for funding. At this point in time we are focusing on grants from different governments, but we are also looking for other investors. For this project 1,4 million euro is needed. Please contact us if you think you can help in any way with this project.

When this project receives funding we aim to increase the number of blood donations in Ukraine by 5-10% within the first year and up to 40% within 3 to 5 years.

BRIGADES

Protect Ukraine works directly with commanders of front-line units to discuss their needs and coordinate deliveries.
We focus our support with drone-infrastructure on 6 front-line brigades (see next pages): the 28th Mechanised Brigade, the 63rd Mechanised Brigade, 72nd Mechanised Brigade, 93rd Mechanised Brigade, 82nd Air Assault Brigade and 36th Marines Corps Brigade are provided with pilot training, jammers and the infrastructure for drone-units like tablets, Starlinks, antennas, Eco Flows, tablets etc.

Furthermore, we support many other brigades and units with pick-up trucks, motorbikes and other materials. All these deliveries are made through personal, trusted contacts. To name some: the 13th brigade, the SBU, GUR Military Intelligence, the Border Guard, Special Operations Forces, 12th Special Operations Brigade “Azov”, 79th separate Territorial Defense Battalion, 420 Rifle Battalion, 4002 UAV Strike Unit, 64th Brigade, 91th Brigade, 92nd Brigade, 93rd Brigade, 46th Brigade, 24th Brigade, 25th Brigade, 1st Nordic Tank Brigade, 4th Tank Brigade, 81st Separate Air Assault Brigade, 19th TRO Brigade, 41st Separate Rifle Battalion, 143rd Brigade, TRO 1st Brigade, 119th TRO Brigade. We supplied mini buses for pilot training, a deep-cooling truck for AZOV to bring home fallen defenders and an Argocat for the 3nd Brigade in the Kharkiv region.

Volunteer Organizations

Protect Ukraine collaborates with several volunteer organizations and we full heartedly can recommend our community to support them as well.

Dreamers UA (Ukraine based, focused on helping the kids of deceased military or military on the front, basically kids without fathers)

Eyes on Ukraine (Dutch based, focus on drones)

De Leeuw Kyiv (Dutch based, focused on humanitarian aid and support of the army)

LifelineUkraine (Dutch based, focused on medical aid and repairing infrastructure)

NL4Ukraine (Dutch based, focused on medical aid and rehabilitation for military)

Orphans Feeding Foundation (Dutch based, focused on bringing back kidnapped children from Russia and Russian occupied territory)

Open Door Ukraine (Dutch based, awareness and humanitarian and early reconstruction activities)

Ukrainian Patriot (Ukraine based, focused on helping citizens and military close to the front)

Ptach foundation (Poland based, focused on humanitarian and medical aid)

Help4Ukraine.nl (Netherlands based, focused on medical support)