Official Says Crypto Helps Ukraine ‘Operate Internationally’

Due to the military operation launched by Russia in Ukraine, the country has been forced to depend on crypto donations for financing its defense efforts and for resolving the humanitarian problems that have popped up. According to a high-ranking official of the Ukrainian government, crypto assists the country in receiving money quickly as well as distributing it, thereby allowing it to operate internationally. Since the Russian military began its assault, Ukraine has actively sought financial support and requested crypto donations. OleksandrBornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation in Ukraine, said that crypto was a rapid way of getting money and distributing it.

According to the official, the government in Kyiv entered into a partnership with a major crypto exchange to set up a crypto fund, as soon as the Russian invasion began. Therefore, Bornyakov said that money had started coming in immediately and they had already received about $30 million. The crypto fund he was talking about was established for accepting donations for defense purposes, but he also highlighted that there were other funds that were raising money for humanitarian tasks for supporting the civilian population of Ukraine. He elaborated that they had managed to raise about $100 million so far for different purposes.

However, he did not specify if all of this was in crypto assets. The deputy minister elaborated that the country can convert the digital money it receives into any currency, such as the euro or the US dollar. He also added that the best perk of crypto was that it enabled them to operate internationally. He further added that currently it was extremely difficult for the government in Ukraine to supply anything from abroad because the Russian military was advancing in the country from different directions. He added that the crypto fund was helping them speed up the process.

Bornyakov also talked about the warnings of Russia also taking advance of crypto to evade sanctions. He added that Ukraine had reached out to some major crypto exchanges, anti-money laundering bodies and blockchain forensics firms for providing them relevant information about Russians on whom the sanctions are applicable. Even though the Ukrainian official was skeptical about Russia’s use of crypto for potentially evading sanctions, the government has been attempting to expose the crypto wallets that are in use of politicians in Moscow. However, they have not managed to convince crypto exchanges like Kraken, Binance and Coinbaseto freeze all Russian accounts.

Ukraine has already received millions of donations in the form of bitcoin and ether, but it has now expanded the list of cryptocurrencies it is accepting for donations. Dogecoin and polkadothave now been added to the list. The global crypto community has come together to provide humanitarian support in the country that was attacked by Russia more than a week ago. Binance, the biggest exchange in terms of daily trading volume, announced that it would donate $10 million. It also added that it would launch a crowdfunding initiative to facilitate third parties in offering their assistance to the country.