OUR MISSION

Art Aid Ukraine is a not for profit initiative to generate funds through the sale of art in order to supply urgently required medicine to frontline medics in Ukraine.

We gratefully receive donations of artwork from established creatives which are offered to the public through events, online auctions and general sales. These include paintings, ceramics, sculpture and photography. All proceeds are used to buy medicines through our affiliated wholesalers in Ukraine, the UK and Romania. Everyone connected with organizing Art Aid Ukraine works on a voluntary basis so 100% of our proceeds is spent on procuring medicine. Thanks to the generosity of the creative community and our Volunteers, over £100K worth of medicine has been safely sent directly to front line medics based on their needs.

We exist through the goodwill of the artistic community and warmly welcome any Artist or collector who wishes to be part of this initiative to consider donating artwork.

The idea is to gather medicine and reach out a long arm to place it in the hands of Ukrainian medics. An Artist who contributes their creativity to this project is sharing their gift in a time of tragedy. We hope everyone investing in our artworks may enjoy them even more in the knowledge that they may have helped save an innocent person’s life. 

FIRST STEPS

Art Aid Ukraine was founded in March 2022 by Ukrainian and UK national Lesia and Adam in response to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. We spent a month on the Romanian border the week following the invasion helping family members and others escape to safety. During this time we developed a trusted network of volunteers to help bring medical aid to some of the most difficult to reach areas of eastern and southern Ukraine.

In the months following the invasion, volunteers would receive lists of urgently required medicine from medics inside Ukraine. The large NGOs were finding it challenging to reach many of the hospitals and there was a massive demand for medicine from outside Ukraine because demand outstripped production and supply lines had not been established. We stayed in Suceava, northern Romania where we received support from local supply and logistics. We were able to procure medicine directly from pharmacies at wholesale prices. A local charity Sange Pentru was able to assist transporting medicines into Ukraine and meeting Ukrainian volunteers who would drive them to hospitals, many of which were under attack. 

As production increased we were also able to begin procurement from Ukrainian wholesalers which simplifies distribution and supports the local economy. It also means we can supply medicines that the medics are totally familiar with.

Throughout this process we have seen how effective Volunteers can be when they share a unified purpose based on trust. No shipments have been lost - everything has safely been delivered. This is a testament to the bravery and integrity of the Volunteers in the field. We often speak about the role Volunteers play in times of crisis - we cannot thank them enough for what they do.

Art Aid Ukraine launched with a major event in London’s iconic venue the Boiler House. Contributing Artists include Bran Symondson, Dangerous Minds Artists, Tacita Dean, Jean Jullien, Frances Aviva Blane, Valerie Wiffen, Robyn Ward, Roelof Uys, Liz Fritsch, Nicole Farhi, David Leach, Jason Wason, Gregory Tingay, Michel Francois, Karl Owen, Juliya Dan, Barry Martin, Sue Davis, Lennie Lee, Matt Small, Victoria Topping, Lenkiewicz Foundation, Dan Mitchell, Bridget Leaman, Tom Merrifield, Jill Furmanovsky, Soulla Petrou, among 50 other established creatives.

SUPPLY

With the proceeds of our sales, we have supplied medicine to many frontline areas including Zaporizhya, Kramatorsk, Drujkivka and Mykolaiv and even in occupied territories. This has helped to support medics treating military and civilian casualties. We are in direct contact with medics. They tell us what they need and we get what we can to them. This has included blood transfusion kits, haemostatic bandages, adrenaline, tourniquets, antibiotics, mobility supports and many other drugs and supplies difficult to source in increasingly isolated areas of Ukraine. In Autumn 2024, the situation has changed and there is improved supply to hospitals, however, there are many smaller facilities near the front line that are extremely dangerous to reach and so we are now focussing our support there. There is a dire need for items that are in short supply today now such as intraosseous infusion systems. We now work closely with Zaporizhya based charity Ukraine in Heart who are able to access front line areas. To illustrate the dangers of the work, its co-founder Oleg recently received grievous injuries in a horrific drone attack on his modified ambulance while out delivering aid to a front line village. He has since recovered and is now back with his team. Sadly, Ukrainian medics are targeted and so ambulances have to be disguised.

We greatly appreciate your interest in what we do. We are simply the link between the creative community and art buyers. Although we are small, we are targeted and have made a difference borne out by the many messages of thanks we have received. We’d like to share some of these pictures with you and hope perhaps you can help keep it going if you find some artwork that resonates with you.

EARLY DAYS

We are Lesia, a Ukrainian-born UK national with 15 years working in fashion industry and Adam, a UK national with 25 years working as a location photographer. Over the past 16 years we have visited family in Ukraine many times and traveled throughout this rich and varied country. As the horrific news broke of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we decided to leave our home in London and head for the Romanian / Ukrainian border to assist Lesia’s family and as many others fleeing the war in any way we could. We were there for 18 days and directly helped 10 women, children and vulnerable people across the border at Siret and into our rented accommodation in Suceava, north Romania. We also purchased and supplied €12,000 of urgently needed medicine to hospitals inside Ukraine.

Originally, we planned to help Ukrainian refugees by bringing supplies to the border but we saw that there was already an effective team of charities and volunteers in place. We decided a better use of time and resources would be to try to help people inside Ukraine. There are approximately 3 million refugees who desperately need help but what about the 40 million people still inside the country? Many supply lines are cut off and there is an urgent need for life-saving medicines in Ukrainian hospitals. We met UK-based couple, Kate and Petru, also on the ground in Siret / Suceava. They had established a crowdfund and had already done some great work in establishing supply routes into Mechnikov – a major hospital in Dnipro which was treating many casualties. Being in direct contact with medical staff at Mechnikov meant we could respond very quickly to what they needed. We developed a supply network that transported urgently needed medicines from a local wholesaler across the border very quickly and directly into the hands of staff at the hospital.

Load 4 - medicines, torches and power packs in our car and at Mechnikov Hospital, Dnipro



We communicated with family, friends and wider contacts and through their generosity we have so far supplied an additional €12,000 value of medicines including pharmaceuticals, wound treatments, equipment and other essential life supporting meds. Aligned with Kate and Petru’s fund this became a significant contribution to keeping the hospital stocked. It was heartening to see photographs of medicines that we had bought in Suceava in the hands of medics a day or two later in Mechnikov, Dnipro.
Our supply line is very much open. We have a credit line with a wholesale supplier in northern Romania who can deliver direct to a committed transport to Ukraine and from there, be picked up by brave volunteers for onward delivery to the hospitals. These efforts are undertaken voluntarily so all the money donated goes towards medicine for Ukraine. In comparison with large NGOs, our efforts are modest but as a smaller, more agile outfit, we can act very swiftly to needs as they come up.

Load 7 - Two carloads of essential medicine picked up from warehouse, packed and dispatched to Ukraine

Load 7 - medicine arriving at hub in Ukraine and then fast-tracked through by staff and volunteers at Mechnikov Hospital Dnipro

Lesia’s family are from Bucha, just outside Kyiv which has seen some of the worst atrocities of the war so far. Lesia’s sister and her two young daughters were able to escape after the first days of shelling and armed assaults but her parents were among thousands trapped in cellars with minimal supplies and no utilities or communications. This was a harrowing time for the family – we did not know if they were still alive. After two weeks they were able to escape through the brave efforts of Ukrainian volunteers. Sadly, as I write this I think of the millions of Ukranians that are still living through this terror. Arriving at the border we met Petro and Luda with open arms, a generous and dignified couple who had never hurt anybody in their lives and were part of the fabric of their town, now destroyed by the Russian military. We met with journalists and crew from BBC Panorama and World Service who documented our story, in particular the family reunion and accounts that Lesia’s parents brought as civilians living through the terror of the invasion.

The family reunited. Speaking to BBC World Service on 13th March and Lesia's parents, Petro and Luda speaking on 14th March

With Galya and the girls came Tanya and Melya from nearby Irpin, which has also been devastated. They formed a close unit which we will keep together by welcoming Galya and her daughters to our home in London and ensuring that Tanya and Melya are very close so that they have the option to attend school together. We also helped three students, Marta, Yulia Iryna who were in need of logistical support and a place to stay before moving on to Austria and Germany. Our role was also to provide aid and advice to people in various networks and those in need who we met during our time in Suceava and Siret. 

Helping us with a medicine supply run and then walking through the late winter snow

Kate and Petru, some of the boys from Sange Pentru and the brave volunteers in Ukraine