At our European Defense Tech Hackathon in London last September, one of the most memorable people in the room wasn’t a founder or investor — it was Oleksandr Vorobiov, an active Ukrainian soldier from the Air Defense Division of the 3rd Assault Brigade.
He spent the entire weekend with us, mentoring teams, pressure-testing ideas, and sharing what actually works under real battlefield conditions. This is what makes our hackathons truly unique: having builders and soldiers work alongside each other to create solutions to urgent security challenges that will be further developed post-hackathon and eventually deployed in the field.
Not long after the hackathon, we learned that a ruzzian missile strike destroyed his unit’s R&D facility — the lab where they design and prototype the very systems that protect Ukrainian skies.
So we decided to do something about it.
Together with HELP99 and Resilience Media, we launched a fundraiser with an initial goal of €35,000. The idea was simple: support the very soldiers who showed up for our community, and help them get back to building technology that directly saves lives.
The resonance that followed was greater than we expected.
Contributions came from across Europe and beyond. Some people gave because they had met Oleksandr. Others gave because they believed in the mission. Every €100 donation came with a limited Ukrainian-made NAFO patch created by the brigade — a small symbol of solidarity, and a reminder that this work is real.
When the campaign concluded at the end of 2025, we had raised just over €45,000.
That means the R&D lab won’t just be rebuilt — it will come back stronger. And Oleksandr and his unit can continue developing and deploying systems that protect lives from missile and drone attacks.
To everyone in the EDTH community who supported this effort: thank you!
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦