Our Motivation and Who We Are

Pickup4Ukraine – Unterstützung für Kriegsopfer der Ukraine e.V. Our Motivation and Who We Are

Our Motivation

Ukraine is defending itself in a war testing whether it—or any other nation—can prevail against a great power trying to destroy its culture and state.

“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”
(Winston Churchill)

We want to help the Ukrainians defend themselves, and we want to do it in a personal, direct, hands-on way. For this reason we founded the association “Pickup4Ukraine – Unterstützung für Kriegsopfer der Ukraine e.V.”. The association has been recognized as a non-profit on Oct 30th 2023 and was registered on Nov 30th 2023. It continues the work that Michael, Markus, David and Annette started in January 2023 and carried out as a private initiative until end of September 2023. You find details of the association here.

Ukraine’s defenders require plentiful and reliable transport for people, equipment, and medical evacuation. The average lifespan of a vehicle used near the front is three months. Civilian hospitals and doctors in or near the combat zones depend on tenuous supply chains and often lack the most basic medical supplies.

While governments and large charitable organizations are moving mountains of material to Ukraine, there are still many niches and small gaps best addressed by small organizations like ours working in direct connection with the end users—quickly, directly, and with no guesswork.

We buy vehicles for transport near the front lines of the war and fill them, among other things, with medical supplies to treat wounded soldiers and civilians, as well as other equipment requested.  We do not provide weapons, ammunition or any kind of lethal aid. Wer personally drive into Ukraine. We give the hospital materials to a charity organization in Kyiv, which distributes them to hospitals along the frontlines. We usually organize personal hand overs for the vehicles to the receiving units in different Ukrainian regions.

Your donation is 100% for the vehicles and supplies. There is no overhead.  Fuel and travel costs for the drivers come out of our own pockets and of those of the volunteers who join us as drivers. We can issue donation receipts under German law, for donations of 300 EUR and above. Your mailing address is required for the receipt – please write it in the memo field of your transfer. Your email address is helpful for communication and for receiving our newsletter.

Best wishes,

Michael Sylvester, chair of the association board (Vorstandsvorsitzender)

Dr. Annette Ehrnsperger, substitute and treasurer (Stellvertreterin und Schatzmeisterin)

Please donate by 

  • Bank transfer to the bank account of our association: Pickup4Ukraine – Unterstützung für Kriegsopfer der Ukraine e.V. – IBAN DE45 5479 0000 0001 8726 48, BIC GENODE61SPE, Reference “Pickup4Ukraine”
  • via Venmo or 
  • via PayPal (please note that PayPal deducts fees from the donations we receive. Please select the “Friends and Family” option. If possible, please use a bank transfer. Thank you!)

Thank you for your support! 

Here is a one-pager for download with the most current stats:

20251015_Pickup4Ukraine_eV_FlyerDownload

Updates: