12 months ago, Russia attacked Ukraine in what it termed a special military operation. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine seemingly not having an end in sight, reports have come up that cryptos have played an integral role in the conflict apart from being widely utilized as a means of donations.
Alex Bornyakov, Ukraine’s Deputy Digital Minister, has claimed that nearly 60% of the military equipment purchased for the war was paid for via cryptos. He was speaking in an interview with Yahoo Finance on February 24.
Based on the statement by the minister, the shift to cryptos was helped by suppliers accepting various digital assets as forms of payment to avoid inefficiencies in the traditional financial industry. Bornyakov said:
“If we used the traditional financial system, it was going to take days. <…> We were able to secure the purchase of vital items in no time at all via crypto, and what is amazing is that around 60% of suppliers were able to accept crypto, I didn’t expect this. <…> Companies manufacturing goods like bulletproof vests, helmets, and different kinds of optics, even they were able to receive crypto.”
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Ukraine Crypto Donations
Notably, Ukraine turned to cryptos for donations in the early stages of the war aiming to counter Russia’s firepower. The top government official said that the support was received from various sources, including Russians. He, nonetheless, said that contributions from blacklisted entities were returned.
Bornyakov said:
“Donations to Ukraine have varied from one dollar to millions of dollars. <…> Crypto, in certain cases, offers an anonymous way to transfer money. We saw that some Russians were donating to us a significant sum. The Russian people who have donated have sent significant amounts of money.”
After the war started, a donation fund was created with the Ukraine officials sharing how the funds were used as a strategy to boost transparency.
Buy Bitcoin NowFor example, Ukraine’s minister for Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, shared a breakdown in August explaining how the government had utilized some of the $54 million worth of crypto funds to acquire military equipment.
Interestingly, using cryptos in support of Ukraine has shown a potential future role of digital assets in conflicts.
