As the war in Ukraine drags on into its second month, Ukrainian officials and advocacy groups have repeated their urgent calls for help. In response, both American and Ukrainian companies, law enforcement agencies, and nonprofits have stepped up to get defense-related matériel — particularly body armor — into the hands and onto the torsos of Ukrainian soldiers and newly-formed territorial defense forces who need them.

Last week, a fashion-forward and tech-minded manufacturer of body armor, Aspetto, sent out the first tranche of supplies ultimately destined for the Ukrainian frontlines, according to CEO Abbas Haider. 



Aspetto, which made the Forbes Under 30 list in Manufacturing & Industry in 2018, shipped out more than 50 pallets worth of body armor, backpacks, headlamps, and even hand warmers on Friday. The items are headed for an airport in southeastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine. The company already dispatched 30 pallets earlier in the week, and even more are set to go out in the coming days.

Federal records show that Aspetto has been awarded a $4.2 million contract with the State Department, in one of the larger deals to a federal contractor since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

“This order definitely feels different because of my time in Ukraine a couple of years ago, even though it was brief,” Haider told Forbes by text message. 

“I made a lot of friends and loved Kyiv. Beautiful city. Now with everything going on, the entire team feels like they’re making a positive impact in this war. Our products that we are shipping out are in the field with the end users within of being delivered. We’ve never witnessed that kind of expediency before.”

Meanwhile, Allset, a restaurant-industry startup whose Ukrainian co-founders were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Europe in 2020, has also begun distributing small printed cards with QR codes on them. The idea simply is to provide American restaurant-goers with an easy opportunity to donate directly to charities that help the war effort. 

Stas Matviyenko, one of Allset’s Ukrainian-born-and-raised co-founder told Forbesfrom his home in Los Angeles that even though the war is on the other side of the world — his entire family is still in the country.

“Every Ukrainian outside the country is trying to do something, out of a feeling of guilt,” he said, noting that if he were to try to go home to help his family, he would likely be compelled to stay and fight under the new martial law that conscripts adult men.

“Right now it doesn’t make sense for me to go there. I’m more useful here, now, by buying thousands of body armor.”For now such donation-soliciting cards that Matviyenko says are already at a handful of restaurants and cafés in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Within the next month, Matviyenko said, “we plan to reach 2,000 locations.”

So far, Matviyenko said, his company’s efforts have raised $100,000 to various Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American non-profits, including Grains of Good, Operation Sunflower, and the Ukrainian-American Coordinating Council, or UACC.

Lydia Stoykovych, a UACC board member, said that her organization recently obtained a fast-tracked export license from the Department of Commerce and an authorization letter from the Department of State. Those documents allow the organization to handle and send out otherwise restricted items, including the most protective types of helmets and body armor. Without such authorization, exporting body armor overseas is nearly impossible.

The UACC has taken in $1.8 million in donations since the war started, and has spent approximately $1 million on defense-related equipment, including body armor.

One of the UACC’s recent donors was the Republican Party of Contra Costa County, which held a fundraising dinner with Ukraine’s San Francisco-based consul general, raising around $20,000 for the Ukrainian cause.

“We have never given any money to any outside organization,” Matt Shupe, the group’s chairperson, told Forbes. “This was unprecedented for us—it was fairly impulsive. $20,000 here or there is not going to solve real problems but sending body armor—if we can save a few lives over there that’s a worthwhile venture.”

Additionally, the Vermont State Police announced that it has now collected 1,000 vests from its own ranks and those of neighboring states and will coordinate with the California National Guard to transport these items into Ukraine.

“We just want to support the people over there doing this fighting and we think it’s the right thing to do,” Capt. Michael Manley, the state police official leading the effort. 

“This is just equipment that’s just sitting around doing nothing and if this can help them and make them safer, we are willing to do our part to help them out.”