How to help Ukraine: Procuring tactical medical supplies with the Ptahy Project (Patreon)

Dear Kyiv Independent community members, 

Thank you for your continued support. We launched this newsletter for our members last year — because we heard from you that there’s interest in getting more involved in helping Ukraine.

Each month, we send one edition of the “How to Help Ukraine” newsletter, highlighting an organization supporting Ukraine and giving you a closer look at civil society — along with opportunities to donate or, in some cases, volunteer.

In the twelfth edition of “How to Help Ukraine,” we’re proud to share with you the work of the Ptahy Project, a Ukrainian charity that procures tactical medical supplies, general pharmaceuticals, and surgical equipment to the Ukrainian military in combat areas, stabilization points, and hospitals. 

Ptahy (which means “birds” in Ukrainian) is continuously raising money for tactical medical supplies — specifically, individual first aid kits (IFAKs) for Ukrainian soldiers in combat zones. Each IFAK costs about $100 and contains critical items like a tourniquet, bandages, a thermal blanket, chest seals, alcohol wipes, and medical gloves. 

Although the demand for IFAKs can vary a lot from month to month depending on the situation on the battlefield, medical supplies are always needed urgently, and Ptahy works as quickly as possible to fulfill the requests they receive from units. If you’d like to make a donation, you can find Ptahy’s bank details on their website. Unfortunately, Ptahy can only accept international donations via SWIFT bank transfer. But even a couple of dollars makes a real difference for Ptahy and their mission. 

Ptahy was started by the volunteer and social activist Tata Kepler when Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014. She initially brought one small box of hemostatic bandages from Israel to Ukraine — since, Ptahy has grown into a seven-person team and operates out of a 600-square-meter medical warehouse. Their main focus is purchasing tactical medical supplies, general pharmaceuticals, reserve antibiotics, and medical equipment for Ukrainian soldiers in combat areas, stabilization points, and military hospitals. 

After Ptahy receives a request from a military unit or a hospital, the team verifies the items, assesses the feasibility, and then begins to fulfill it. Once they’ve found suppliers and have procured the items, they use the Ukrainian courier Nova Poshta to deliver the supplies to the units, or in some cases when the deliveries are large and extensive, the units pick up the supplies themselves from the Ptahy warehouse. 

Tactical medical supplies are both critical and expensive. On the battlefield, uncontrolled bleeding is one of the leading causes of preventable death — and often the difference between life and death is if a soldier has a tourniquet and knows how to use it. These supplies are also needed constantly; tactical medicine is not something you can just buy once and it will last. 

Ptahy explains that tactical medicine also has to be high-quality, because poor-quality supplies don’t save lives. The team often has to import tactical medicine from abroad, for example, from the U.S., meaning that all together the logistics and the customs clearance process can take months. Over time, Ptahy’s donations have also declined — another problem is the lack of information that is publicly available about medical supplies on the front line and the fact that many people don’t realize tactical medicine is a consumable, something that constantly needs to be replaced.  

Despite these challenges, last year, Ptahy procured over $140,000 worth of tactical medical aid for the Ukrainian military, including over 23,000 tourniquets and 11,500 individual first aid kits. All together in 2025, Ptahy raised nearly $3.3 million, funding not only tactical medicine, but general pharmaceuticals, surgical supplies, reserve antibiotics, and even vehicle repairs and drones, too. Also, in 2025, about 60% of Ptahy’s donations came from individuals — meaning that you can make an impact with only a few dollars.

You can help Ptahy raise money for individual first aid kits — life-saving supplies that are continuously needed — and every contribution makes a difference. Each IFAK is only about $100, and contains the following: a CAT tourniquet, an eye shield, a chest seal, paramedic scissors, tape, a marker, a thermal blanket, anti-burn gel, an alcohol wipe, a pill pack, medical gloves, a nasopharyngeal tube, a wounded person card, as well as compression, hemostatic, and tamponade bandages. If you’d like to make a contribution, you can find the details to make a bank transfer to Ptahy on their website.

Thank you for your support — and we hope you find these letters highlighting organizations like the Ptahy Project useful. If you have any questions or feedback about our newsletter, please feel free to respond directly to this email or reach out via email at community@kyivindependent.com and let us know what you think of this membership benefit.