About Blågula Bilen
Our idea:
1. Buy a used truck or 4×4 pickup from donated money
2. Put the vehicle in good working condition so it is safe and will work for a long time in Ukraine
3. Fill the vehicle with equipment and supplies needed in Ukraine
4. Drive the vehicle to Ukraine and donate it and the cargo to Ukraine’s defence forces
5. Return home by train, plane or private transfer
6. Repeat steps 1 to 5
The founder of Blågula Bilen, Take Aanstoot, had an old truck standing around that was not being used. He decided to fix it, drive it to Ukraine and donate it. He asked friends and acquaintances on Facebook for help with free or low-cost repairs to the truck, as well as equipment donations to fill the lorry. It was the first vehicle of many and the start of Blågula Bilen.
Lorry no. 1
The network managed to find solutions to all the challenges, the lorry was filled with donated and newly purchased equipment, and on 1 April, Blågula Bilen TA1 left Linköping. Through the Ukrainian Association of Östergötland, Take had established contact with the 10th Ukrainian Mountain Brigade (known as the Edelweiss Brigade). The lorry was handed over to Edelweiss on 4 April, which could have been the end of the story.
Edelweiss told us that trucks are in such short supply in Ukraine that it is often a lack of trucks that is the bottleneck in distributing ammunition and equipment to soldiers. The same issue is in supplying food, medicine, and supplies to the civilian population in the affected areas.
More trucks
Back from Ukraine, and with a taste for this, three more trucks were purchased! TA2, TA3 and TA4.
Several of us wanted to work on this voluntarily, and the “Blågula Bilen” organisation was formed. We had now established a network of contacts for the repair of the trucks. We had also received donations of truck tyres and spare parts from automotive suppliers in the local area.
