Source: “European Solidarity”
Former Ukrainian president and the “European Solidarity” party Petro Poroshenko revealed on Friday that he has already made some 130 trips to the frontlines to get the aid to Ukrainian troops since the Feb.24 invasion, with the the total distance he’s covered during such trips now amounting to 200,000 kilometers, the distance equivalent of 4.5 times travel around the Earth’s equator.
“This includes the East, near Chasiv Yar, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Pokrovsk, and the South in Orikhove, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. And now also the North—Vovchansk, Sumy, Kharkiv,” said the proud politician.
“If anyone can do more, I welcome the challenge. Even better, let’s compete in who can help the Armed Forces more,” added the politican who has recently celebrated his 59th birtday by going to the frontlines to get another batch of military equipment to the Ukrainian troops.
Poroshenko added that 80% of the urgent requests he gets from soldiers are about equipment or drones.
Poroshenko’s team has already secured contracts for 40,000 FPV drones, making up almost 20% of the total drone deliveries in Ukraine.
“When people say that Poroshenko is doing this for publicity, I would gladly not have to do it. I would prefer to invest my time and money in developing new weapons and defense systems. But when every week you get calls about critical situations at various parts of the front, we don’t go there to take selfies and leave. We go to respond to urgent requests from our comrades in arms. And we won’t stop or give up,” added Poroshenko.
In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.
During the GLOBSEC Defence Forum 2026 in Prague, representatives of “Steel Front”, an initiative by Rinat Akhmetov, discussed with NATO delegations, military officials, and representatives of the European defense industry the lessons learned from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
After the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine witnessed an unprecedented wave of private support for the army. Citizens, big businesses, charitable foundations, and international philanthropists began financing the country’s defense alongside state assistance provided by international partners. Estimates of total private contributions range from tens to hundreds of billions of hryvnias. However, determining the exact amount remains difficult. In many cases, companies combine military aid, humanitarian programs, tax payments, social spending, and employee support in their reporting.
Rinat Akhmetov’s military initiative, “Steel Front”, has delivered a batch of drones worth UAH 214 million to the 1st “Azov” Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine. This shipment is part of the Metinvest Group’s ongoing support for the unit in 2025.
On October 6, the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court of Ukraine continued hearing case No. 990/80/25, in which the fifth President and leader of the party “European Solidarity”, Petro Poroshenko, seeks to have Presidential Decree No. 81/2025 from February 12, 2025 — enacting sanctions by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) — declared illegal and annulled. The plaintiff claims the document was falsified and that the sanctions are a tool of political persecution of the opposition, contrary to international norms. Government representatives deny the allegations and insist their actions were lawful. Journalists of Bukvy were present at the hearing.