The bulletproof vests were purchased as part of the Armor project. Lviv IT Cluster aims to purchase 1,000 bulletproof vests of 4+ protection class for the military, special services, and special forces soldiers who are defending our country at the frontline.
Through this initiative, the community of Lviv IT Cluster purchased over 800 bulletproof vests for soldiers serving in the area of Mykolayiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Popasna, Kramatorsk, etc. At the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, soldiers who were defending Bucha, Irpin, and Konotop were also provided with the protective equipment.
Since from the first days of the full-scale war, bulletproof vests were in scarcity, it was a challenge to procure them. However, the Lviv IT Cluster team managed to establish cooperation with three suppliers. The first batch was purchased in Israel, the second in China. The third supplier is the Lviv Defense Cluster. It is an association of volunteers and enterprises of the defense sector, including a licensed manufacturer of bulletproof vests of the Kharkiv plant of personal protective equipment. The Defense Cluster is designated by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine as the main coordinator of the volunteer movement aimed at organizing the production of bulletproof vests.
“It is important for us that bulletproof vests are of high quality, so we constantly consulted the military to buy the type of protection that corresponds to the needs that are relevant to them. Lviv IT Cluster is now working to help secure the military, which will soon be rotated. In particular, it is the separate airborne assault brigade 80 and the separate mechanized brigades 24,” says Yuriy Ohonovskyi, Deputy CEO of Lviv IT Cluster.
“Armor is one of the projects within our Victory Projects initiative, launched in the first days of a full-scale war. We implement these projects due to the financial involvement of the companies of the Lviv IT Cluster. Therefore, I want to thank every member who supports the initiative, thus, bringing the victory of Ukraine closer. In addition, I would like to mention our team, which in peacetime organized conferences, modernized education and worked for the development of the IT industry. In the new conditions, everyone was able to quickly switch and actually organize the procurement of such a large number of bulletproof vests,” says Stepan Veselovskyi, CEO of Lviv IT Cluster.
1,000 bulletproof vests is not the end goal for the Lviv IT Cluster community. It is planned that the procurement of another 1000 of bulletproof vests for the military and special forces defending Ukraine will be organized within the Armor project.