As per the reports, earlier on Thursday, Russia launched a full-blown invasion of Ukraine on many fronts. The reports say that the Ukrainian government mobilized troops and arm citizens for battle; the Ukrainian Diplomat requested foreign intervention from Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India for assistance.
As the news of a potential attack surfaced globally and acknowledged by G7 countries and the United Nations for weeks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has set forth an “unprovoked and unjustified attack” on Ukraine earlier on Thursday which as shocked the world and rippled a panic across nations of potential world war 3, according to US President Joe Biden.
With reports flooding in from the internet as Ukrainian citizens upload videos on mass casualties, the military action has sparked international condemnation, the US President imposed multiple sanctions on Russia. The world watching has rushed in aid to support the citizens of Ukraine with donations on medical supplies, humanitarian relief, psychiatric services, military equipment, and other donations such as Cryptocurrency fundraising for relief.
Ukraine Denied Crypto Donations stating “We Can’t Accept Crypto”
The Ministry of Defence on Ukraine stated earlier on Thursday that they have received several donation requests in the form of aid by foreigners to strengthen their Armed Forces, but they are unable to accept cryptocurrency. The document presented had one section which appears the interest of social media users that sparked piqued interest globally —
“National legislation does not allow the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to use other payment systems, such as Webmoney, Bitcoin, PayPal, etc.”
Crypto users immediately hopped on to the Ukrainian government’s Twitter account, where they provided the links for them to request/accept digital currency donations. It was concerning about the possibilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to accept cryptocurrency donations.
One such user, TechLeakers, wrote, “Get a Bitcoin cryptocurrency address. So it will be accepted globally.”
User MMusikwolf also wrote,
“Do not donate crypto. The value fluctuates too much for it to be useful in this sense. Money has the highest liquidity of any asset and thus can be used fastest.”
Others like BiggieWhale, promptly pointed out that, “Stablecoin” digital currencies like USDT are tethered to the American dollar and hence do not experience the same kind of price fluctuation. Bitcoin donations are only accepted by one Ukrainian non-governmental group, Come Back Alive, with proceeds going to the Ukrainian Army.
Would Crypto be Good for Ukraine Amid War?
Before the Russian full-scale invasion, Ukraine legalized cryptocurrency just last week, even as the tensions roiled global markets owing to fears of larger global conflicts, the digital currency was acknowledged. After a week of this sanction, there were more than 100,00 Russian troops stationed near the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, posted on Twitter —
“Ukraine is already in top-5 countries on cryptocurrency usage. Today we made one more step forward: Parliament adopted law on virtual assets! This will legalize crypto exchanges and cryptocurrencies, and Ukrainians could protect their assets from possible abuse or fraud.”
The flooding of Bitcoin donations has skyrocketed to Ukrainian volunteering and hacking groups. As per the reports, some of these groups have also supplied arms and ammunition to government forces. This said groups have collected a shocking amount of up to $550,000 in cryptocurrency in 2021, according to research.
A blockchain research firm, Elliptic, according to them the digital currencies are becoming a more important aspect or rather a medium for fundraising for volunteering groups supporting Ukraine.
Elliptic stated that
“Cryptocurrency has proven to be a robust and growing alternative (to traditional currency) especially when it comes to donations from other countries.”
Amid the Russian invasion, the global assets and foreign currency values, including BTC and Ukrainian “Hryvnia” is currently undergoing significant selloffs.
FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, addressed the subject of currency destabilization in Eastern Europe amid the invasion, wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread —
“If you were in Ukraine right now, where would you trust your money? And more importantly, there might be war. That’s really bad for the world. Fuck all this price stuff. Go outside and do something nice for someone,” he stressed.
