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From small to mighty: how the HeroCar project turns toy trucks into real pickups for Ukraine’s Armed Forces

5.06.2025

Yevheniia But, CEO of the Ruslan Shostak Charitable Foundation

Donating to Ukraine’s Defense Forces and receiving a souvenir that reminds us of the vital need to supply the military with vehicles — that’s the idea behind the Ruslan Shostak Charitable Foundation’s initiative “From Small to Mighty.” As part of the initiative, we offer miniature HeroCar pickups in exchange for donations. These souvenir vehicles are replicas of the real pickups HeroCar sends to the front lines. Anyone can buy one of these toy trucks, and 100% of the proceeds go toward purchasing real vehicles for the army. It takes the equivalent of 3,300 toy pickups to fund one real, reliable vehicle for Ukraine’s Armed Forces. These souvenirs are available in Ukrainian retail chains and on the HeroCar website.

Thanks to this project, HeroCar has already delivered 19 vehicles to the front, and in total, over 680 military vehicles have been sent to the battlefield by HeroCar.

Major Ukrainian businesses are also joining this charitable effort, selling the toy trucks in their stores or purchasing them as gifts for employees and their children. For businesses, it’s a meaningful way to fulfill their corporate social responsibility.

We are now expanding and evolving the project. Recently, we started placing HeroCar stands in shopping malls, cafés, and other public spaces — even inside the Kyiv Opera House. These stands are completely autonomous, with no promoters. This means people can freely take a souvenir pickup and make a donation on their own. And we see that this model works — Ukrainians take the vehicles and responsibly donate to each one.

Schoolchildren from the Dnipropetrovsk region also joined the initiative. Their fundraising campaign managed to buy another vehicle for the Armed Forces. It’s an incredible joy to see such active and engaged youth participating in initiatives like this, driven by a strong sense of civic responsibility.