Blue/Yellow — from idea to Western Europe's largest support organisation for Ukraine
More than a decade at the frontline of Ukraine's survival
2014 — From an artist's idea to the battles at Donetsk airport
When Russia annexed Crimea and launched hostilities in Donbas in the spring of 2014, Ukraine faced a brutal collapse. The Ukrainian army was materially depleted and volunteers streamed to the front without basic provisions. In Lithuania, a small circle gathered around the artist Jūratė Sližytė, who formulated the name and core idea behind the civilian support movement Blue/Yellow. On 14 October 2014, the non-profit organisation was officially registered in Lithuania under the leadership of Paulius Kijauskas and Jonas Öhman.
The efforts started at the most elementary and personal level. The first transports contained sturdy boots, warm field jackets, simple helmets and ballistic vests. Jonas Öhman and the first co-workers drove the cars themselves all the way to Donbas. Öhman later described meeting the Ukrainian volunteers at the zero line as shattering: the soldiers wore an improbable mix of worn Soviet uniforms, British surplus garments, trainers and civilian knitted jumpers. They lacked everything, but refused to yield.
During the autumn of 2014, the organisation reached an early tactical milestone. Blue/Yellow managed to deliver advanced thermal sights directly to the Ukrainian units defending the ruins of Donetsk airport under desperate conditions. The equipment was immediately used to direct and correct artillery fire in darkness against attacking Russian forces, one of the very first documented cases where civilian-donated high technology had a directly decisive effect on the battlefield. During the first year, seven tonnes of humanitarian and tactical materiel were delivered directly to the combat zone.
2015 — Shelling at Debaltseve and the first drones
During 2015, the operations deepened and the methods became more systematic. The war escalated in intensity and the aid workers operated under constant mortal danger. During the battle for the railway junction at Debaltseve, one of the organisation's vehicles came under direct hostile mortar fire. Shrapnel tore up the ground around the car, but the conviction of the mission's necessity deepened rather than deterred, and deliveries continued without interruption.
The organisation understood early on that the military reality was fundamentally changing. Already at the beginning of 2015, Blue/Yellow delivered a civilian Phantom 3 quadrocopter to the volunteer battalion Skhidnyi Korpus in Kharkiv, one of the first steps towards what would soon become a whole new era of airborne field reconnaissance. Jonas Öhman was open about the unique nature of the work: the organisation did not deal with passive emergency aid at a safe distance, but functionally participated in the defence of Ukraine by equipping specific frontline units. In Sweden, the efforts attracted nationwide media attention when deliveries passed two million kronor in value, with a focus on optics, night vision, fragmentation protection and field reconnaissance.
2016 to 2019 — Technological shift and personal relationships in the shadow of the world's silence
Between 2016 and 2019, Ukraine faded from international headlines. The conflict was incorrectly described as frozen, while soldiers and civilians continued to die in the trenches every week. While international aid organisations packed up, Blue/Yellow remained at the zero line. With an annual fundraising volume between one hundred thousand and three hundred thousand euros, the operation developed into a technical pioneer.
In the summer of 2016, one of the first portable counter-drone systems was delivered to the Aidar battalion at the frontline, in the company of Lithuania's then foreign minister Linas Linkevičius. The organisation realised long before established military institutions that future battles would be decided by commercial drones and electronic warfare, and small civilian drones were transformed into invaluable eyes in the sky for Ukrainian artillery crews and reconnaissance groups.
During these years, relationships were established that cannot be bought for money. By personally driving materiel directly to unit commanders, volunteer battalions and the National Guard, a deep mutual trust was created. Field teams learned to know the units that managed resources with precision, the methods that worked in the field and how bureaucracy could be eliminated.
2020 to 2021 — Quiet preparation for the full-scale storm
By the beginning of 2021, Blue/Yellow had delivered equipment to a total value of around one million dollars since its founding. The figure was small compared to state defence budgets, but the effect was concentrated and surgical: the organisation supplied field units with exactly the materiel that official supply chains were unable to provide, from specially adapted night optics to encrypted radios and field medical consumables.
When Russian forces began gathering along Ukraine's borders in the autumn of 2021, there was no doubt within the organisation. Seven to eight years of uninterrupted presence at the front had given the field teams unique insight into the adversary's intentions, and while the world hoped for diplomatic solutions, Blue/Yellow prepared its networks for maximum load.
24 February 2022 — Immediate response to the full-scale invasion
When Russian forces rolled across the border towards Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson on 24 February 2022, the outside world was paralysed by shock. Many international organisations were forced to evacuate their staff and halt transports. Blue/Yellow was at this stage the only Lithuanian support organisation that already had established transport routes and verified contacts on the ground in Ukraine, and the long-term relationships from eight quiet years of war became the direct precondition for saving countless lives during the first critical hours of the invasion.
During the first day, the public donated one million euros. Within hours, vehicles were loaded with protective equipment, generators and optics for onward transport to the combat zones. During the year, operations grew exponentially: the organisation raised over 40.7 million euros in 2022 according to its own financial reporting, and the American magazine Forbes ranked Blue/Yellow among the world's ten most effective organisations for civilian support to Ukraine. The main focus remained firmly on non-lethal equipment that protected lives, saved civilians and gave defenders the technical prerequisites to hold their ground.
Documented field capacity and strength
- Founded on 14 October 2014 in Lithuania
- A total of over 120 million euros raised since founding through 2025, of which 57.8 million euros from private individuals
- On average, 96.6 per cent of all funds raised have gone directly to support and support-related logistics during the period 2022 to 2025
- Average delivery time from verified need at the zero line to completed handover between 1 and 10 days
- Over 11,500 drones delivered in total between 2022 and 2025, with an increase from 692 units in 2022 to over 5,000 units in 2025
- Blue/Yellow Medical has treated 3,644 patients and trained 68 Lithuanian doctors and medics since its start in 2023
- Full focus on non-lethal, life-saving and technical equipment
- Established Nordic branch through Blue/Yellow Sweden, founded in 2025
2023 — Trauma care in liberated zones and tactical training
The course of the war placed new demands on specialised field medicine. After Russian troops were driven back from the suburbs of Kyiv, medical teams travelled into severely scarred areas such as Bucha to assist residents whose hospitals had been looted and destroyed. These experiences laid the foundation for the official start of Blue/Yellow Medical during the second half of 2023.
Lithuanian doctors, maxillofacial surgeons, dentists and field nurses began carrying out regular missions directly adjacent to the front zone. In parallel, advanced training programmes for Ukrainian soldiers were established, where instructors with backgrounds in international defence alliances trained units in tactical trauma care under ongoing combat. Already in 2023, the organisation's medical teams treated 786 patients, a figure that rose to 1,485 in 2024.
2024 — The technological shift and ten years of resistance
In October 2024, the organisation celebrated ten years of continuous presence at the front. The celebration manifested itself at Lukiškių aikštė in Vilnius through a major benefit concert where over one hundred and fifty thousand euros were raised directly for the medical field missions. During this tenth operational year, Blue/Yellow raised over 20.1 million euros and delivered materiel including over 4,500 drones.
The dynamics of the war had now developed into an intensive technical systems war in which dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum determined survival. The organisation redirected resources to meet the threat from hostile drone swarms and artillery direction, by providing electronic warfare systems, spectrum analysers and secure frequencies that protected Ukrainian positions against detection.
2025 — The 100 million euro threshold and Swedish expansion
On 2 July 2025, the organisation announced that Lithuanian citizens and international donors had donated a total of over 100 million euros since the founding in 2014, a figure that by the end of the year had reached 120 million euros in accumulated capital. To broaden support and connect the Nordic and Baltic countries' civilian resources, Blue/Yellow Sweden was officially founded on 23 October 2025, the organisation's first formal branch outside Lithuania.
Drone systems and drone accessories now constituted a dominant share of the material support, with 5,096 delivered drones and over 5,300 accessories during 2025 alone. The Swedish branch immediately focused on mobilising the business community and establishing stable flows for purchasing technical equipment.
2026 — Sustained presence until full freedom
During the first six months of 2026, rearmament continued towards advanced drone and robotic technology, with deliveries of ground robots such as UGV TerMIT and VOLIA E for logistics and evacuation, and electronic warfare systems such as Hymo, REB Enigma Flagman and a range of electronic jammers to protect Ukrainian positions against hostile drone detection. Blue/Yellow continuously responds to new threats by supplying units with mobile reconnaissance resources, vehicles, counter-drone systems and field medical trauma kits, while the Swedish operation is in full swing and strengthens the Nordic capacity to assist Ukraine for a long time to come.
Our history is not about figures or organisation charts. It is about the people at the front who refuse to give up, and about the unwavering promise to stand by their side until the day when peace and territorial freedom again prevail throughout the country.
Our vision and mission
Our vision
A whole, sovereign and free Ukraine where every citizen lives in security and freedom within the country's internationally recognised borders.
We see a future where cities and villages recover, where fields are cleared of ammunition and where generations grow up without the sound of air-raid sirens or the threat of annihilation. This dream of freedom concerns not only a geographical nation, but forms the very core of a democratic Europe where international law and human dignity are never compromised under the pressure of violence. It is the same principle that was at stake when Blue/Yellow delivered its first thermal sights to the defenders of Donetsk airport in 2014, and it is the same principle that is at stake today, ten years and over 120 million euros in raised support later.
Our aspiration is a world where civil society's independent power is able to resist tyranny and where action always triumphs over hesitation. We refuse to accept a reality where exhaustion leads to oblivion, a risk we have seen materialise before, between 2015 and 2021, when international media largely turned their gaze away from Donbas while the fighting continued every day. Blue/Yellow stayed then, and that experience shapes our conviction today: support that ceases when attention drops is not support that saves lives in the long term. Through unyielding perseverance we keep alive the promise that those who stand at democracy's outermost border are never left alone, no matter how long the war lasts or how the climate of global solidarity shifts.
Our mission
To save human lives, alleviate suffering and strengthen defensive capability at the frontline by immediately delivering verified non-lethal material support and advanced field medicine directly to the individuals and units that need it most.
Our mission rests in the acute reality. We exist to plug the critical gaps where seconds and millimetres determine the difference between life and death. By removing bureaucratic obstacles, we turn compassion into concrete tools in the hands of those who risk everything. Our purpose is realised when a wounded soldier survives transport from the line of fire, when a field unit discovers a hostile attack in time thanks to the right reconnaissance equipment, and when civilians in liberated areas receive acute care through Blue/Yellow Medical's field missions, which since the start in 2023 have reached over 3,600 patients.
The mission is not static. It is continuously adapted to the reality of the front. When the war in 2014 demanded boots, jackets and ballistic vests, we delivered that. When the war in 2024 and 2025 came to be dominated by drones and electronic warfare, a development reflected in our drone deliveries increasing from 692 units in 2022 to over 5,000 units in 2025, we redirected resources at the same pace. This is the core of our mission: never to be behind the curve when the threat picture changes.
Principles and internal processes
The work is based on uncompromising field presence and a methodology refined through years of practical experience, step by step since the first deliveries in 2014.
Direct delivery without detours
We maintain our own logistics chains from fundraising all the way to handover at the front. No material is left in storage or gets stuck in protracted negotiations. Through direct contact with unit commanders and field doctors, relationships built up over more than a decade in many cases, the equipment reaches the recipient within days. Our own delivery statistics show that the time from confirmed need to completed handover normally lies between one and ten days, depending on the type of materiel and destination. This speed is not a coincidence but the result of a network that has been tested and refined since the first vehicles were personally driven to Donbas by Jonas Öhman and the organisation's earliest co-workers.
Needs-driven field logic
We deliver only what recipients explicitly request and need in the moment. When the threat picture in the air changes, we adapt. Our operations cover reconnaissance drones, electronic countermeasures, mobile communications solutions, field vehicles and complete trauma kits adapted to real combat situations. During the first half of 2026, this concretely meant deliveries of everything from advanced ground robots (UGVs) of the TerMIT and VOLIA E types for logistics and evacuation, to electronic warfare systems and spectrum analysers to protect Ukrainian positions against hostile drone detection. It is a constantly changing materiel list, driven not by what is easy to collect but by what the units themselves request.
Medical reach and training
Through Blue/Yellow Medical, we bring specialised care and training to areas where civilian healthcare has collapsed. Doctors and medical personnel carry out missions on the ground to treat civilian and military injuries, while soldiers are trained in advanced care under hostile fire to lower death rates in the field. In 2025, we formally trained 68 Lithuanian doctors and medics, of whom 33 in war surgery and field practice and 35 in the internationally recognised MARCH algorithm for trauma care in combat environments, an investment totalling over 900,000 training hours. These are not one-off efforts but the development of lasting competence that continues to save lives long after the actual training occasion has ended.
Transparency and precision
Every donated resource is registered, every transport is checked and every handover is documented with photo and receipt. We report how resources are managed and ensure that between ninety-five and ninety-seven per cent of funds go unabridged to field materiel, an average of 96.6 per cent during the period 2022 to 2025, audited year by year and reported openly. This level of transparency is not a marketing promise but an administrative principle that permeates the entire organisation, from the fundraising apparatus in Lithuania to the Swedish branch established in 2025.
Our long-term goals
- Reduce time losses in supply chains to guarantee that acute materiel reaches frontline units within ten days from order, a standard we already largely achieve but which we continuously work to shorten further
- Minimise mortality among the wounded at the zero line through broad distribution of field medical equipment and application of international trauma protocols, further developed on the more than 3,600 patients Blue/Yellow Medical has already treated
- Maintain technical balance for Ukrainian units against hostile drones through continuous supply of modern electronic warfare resources, as the war is increasingly decided in the electromagnetic spectrum
- Restore access to basic dental care and general medicine for the population in de-occupied and heavily affected areas, an effort that began in Bucha in 2022 and continues to grow
- Serve as an unwavering voice for Ukraine's cause in the Nordic region until the day when the entire territory is liberated and peace again prevails, a task the Swedish branch has taken active responsibility for since 2025
