This despite an intensifying in fighting on the front as Russia launches a now-traditional spring offensive.

February 24, Independence Day in Estonia, marked the fifth anniversary of the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

For five years straight now, Estonian volunteers have continued their work, providing Ukrainians with humanitarian aid and the equipment necessary to keep them in the fight. Just last Wednesday, two minibuses which had set off from Estonia reached their destination: Ukrainian air defense units. Raivo Olev, head of the NGO responsible for collecting the funding for the vehicles, MTÜ Võidutahe, personally delivered them, and said he would keep on with the work for as long as it takes.

"We will stop when we are no longer supported, because otherwise we can't do this. Or when the war ends. As of today, we still have the support. I think we can be satisfied. These two buses we delivered — the project cost was around €20,000 for both. We managed to do that in two months. I would say that today, in the fifth year, that's okay," Olev told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Olev started the Võidutahe organization in March 2022, less than a month after the outbreak of the full-scale war. At that time, there were donors in abundance.

However, four years of war have brought the inevitable fatigue, and the volume of donations has dropped drastically; an embezzlement scandal involving a former Eesti 200 MP, Johanna-Maria Lehtme, who had positioned herself ahead of the 2023 elections as a supporter of Ukraine, has hardly helped the cause either.

The organization has thus had to narrow its focus, turning more specifically to supporting air defense. Olev said he has considered giving it all up, and more than once.

"Of course, I'm not going to lie here. Several times, even. But that passes quickly," he said.

Another NGO, Vaba Ukraina, which began operating after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the shadow war in Donbass, now 12 years ago, has already shut down once — though for somewhat different reasons. "We stopped in 2018 because the fighting in Donbas subsided and public interest also collapsed, so donations didn't come in as much. But we restarted in 2022. As Ukrainians say: We have a shared problem, let's solve it together," said Kuido Külm, head of Vaba Ukraina.

And the work has paid off: this year may even end up going better for Vaba Ukraina than 2025 did; just as the nature of the fighting and of the focus of weaponry has evolved in the past four years, so too have approaches to donations of non-military as well as military aid.

"New things have come in that we didn't see in 2022 or 2023 — cases where a company or institution donates a large batch of written-off equipment, like communication devices, computers, screens, which need to be delivered to Ukraine. Just recently, we managed to send 1,000 blankets to Ukraine," Külm explained.

While NGOs sprang up like mushrooms after the rain in the first year of the war, some of these have since ceased operations. Often, the reason is a decline in funding noted above.

On the other hand, Ukrainian war refugees who arrived in Estonia and who have put roots down here have also established several associations themselves to support both their compatriots and others in similar circumstances elsewhere.

The cottage industry of camouflage netting-weaving has not gone anywhere either

"There are people here who have been doing this for five years already and are still doing it today," said Bogdan Ljutjuk, head of the Ukrainian Cultural Center.

The center is just one of the weaving hubs, and has also sent the largest convoy from Estonia so far — 34 vehicles in total. In addition, they have sent medical equipment, hospital beds, and trench candles. "I think it's simply necessary. There's no question about it… it just has to be done. It's much harder in Ukraine than it is here. People are literally in trenches there right now—they've been there for five years. We have it very good here," Ljutjuk said.

This means volunteers still devote a major chunk of their lives to Ukraine; naturally, this can impact on their personal lives.

"It affects things quite a lot, because volunteering isn't just that one week here or there. The last time we went was in January, then February, March — we're going roughly every two months now," Olev noted.

"I actually have three children, the youngest just over half a year old. It does take time away from both personal matters and family life," he added.

Külm agreed that volunteer work takes up a great deal of time. "Real life begins for a volunteer at 10 p.m. The day's tasks are done, and then you start consulting with friends, handling documents, sending things, and preparing packages for shipment," Külm said.

So even if it may seem to some that attention has shifted away from Ukraine with all the other hotspots in the world today, it is likely that at that very moment a new aid shipment is being put together. As they say themselves: Once a volunteer, always a volunteer. And that will continue until victory.

"Energetic people — they'll come up with something, something new to do. Once you're doing one thing as a volunteer, you can do another. We'll figure something out," Külm went on.

"I've even thought at times that when the war ends or this is no longer needed, I might have to take up some really time-consuming hobby instead," Olev reflected.

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