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ATVs and gas masks for the Ukrainian military are funded by cryptocurrency donations

By Shannon Wilson | May 14, 2022

Ukrainian officials have utilized funds from the government’s cryptocurrency contribution platform to buy equipment for the country’s military while it fights Russia.

In particular, Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, revealed on Friday that the nation has acquired five all-terrain vehicles that “will come in handy for a challenging environment” — likely alluding to situations near the Russian border or where roads have been damaged or destroyed. Aid for Ukraine, a government-run portal that takes crypto donations “to support people in their fight for freedom,” provided funds for three of the ATVs.

Aid for Ukraine had apparently raised more than $60 million in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), Polkadot’s DOT, Solana’s SOL, and USD Coin (USDC). Fedorov said on Wednesday that the administration had already sent 5,000 gas masks to state border guards and the army with some of the funding.

Since the crisis began, Relief for Ukraine has acquired around 5,000 “optical and thermal imaging gadgets” for the country’s military, as well as tablets to enable Ukrainians fleeing the country to locate lodging and aid, bulletproof jackets, medical supplies, cars, and clothes.

Since the commencement of the Russian military incursion in February, the Ukrainian government has used cryptocurrency as a means of accepting payments from concerned parties many times. Fedorov announced in April that the government would accept nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, as contributions to the war effort, which would then be sold to “contribute to the Ukrainian victory,” and it recently launched a charity NFT collection with pieces from Ukraine’s video game developers and digital artists.

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