Help Vasyl return alive

Hi everyone, I'm Joanna Lubanska and I want to help my friend Vasyl return alive from the war in the Ukraine. 

Vasyl is about to be conscripted into the Ukrainian Army. He was unable to join the fighting before, because he had broken his leg. 

He could leave the Ukraine legally, because he is a father to three little girls. However, he's decided to stay and fight. 

His wife and daughters have applied for visas to the UK, and are coming to live with us in our house in Paisley until they get settled here. Thankfully, we added an extension to the house a couple of years ago, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to help them. 

So why have I set up this fundraiser? 

The Ukrainian army are under equipped, and Vasyl needs to obtain his own body armour. The types of bulletproof vests the Ukrainian army provides as standard only protect the user against hand gun bullets, not against machine guns. Vasyl needs a level IV vest and a ballistic-grade helmet. 

Vasyl only asked me whether I had contact details for any charitable organisations providing body armour to the Ukrainian soldiers. He had researched it online, but such help is handled centrally, it is not set up to provide equipment to individuals. 

Me and my family started looking and calling, and we hit a brick wall. No answer from anywhere. We also started calling military supply shops, and they confirmed that body armour, especially genuine, certified armour, is very hard to come by. Especially ballistic grade helmets.

A helmet costs around 2000zl. A bulletproof vest costs around 900zl however the expensive part is the two plate inserts, one for the front, one for the back. Those cost 2500zl each. 

The total is 8000zl, which is around £1600.

We found a ballistic helmet here in the UK, and we found a shop in Poland who still has ceramic plate inserts for vests. They are more expensive than steel, but when hit by a bullet, they absorb the shock, while the steel ones may cause the bullet to rupture and the shards to fly everywhere, which can injure the wearer and be the ultimate cause of death. 

This will be Vasyl's second mobilisation into the army. 

I'm setting up this collection on a Polish platform, because GoFundMe doesn't allow collections supporting the army or any political causes. 

Please give generously and let's help Vasyl stay alive for his daughters! 

Slava Ukraini! 💙💛

P.S. Any funds not used to buy Vasyl's body armour will be transferred to the account of the Ukrainian Army.