Asking the public to help fund a war
How online appeals provide the weapons that Ukraine needs
In a workshop in western Ukraine, a technician adjusted a metal bracket that had been attached to a racing drone so that it could carry a grenade, turning an aircraft sold in hobby stores into a lethal weapon.
Standing nearby were two American entrepreneurs, who had arrived bearing gifts of a dozen other drones, a small installment in what has becoming a torrent of military aid to Ukraine. But this is not part of the state-sponsored arms shipments being raced into Ukraine to help the country fight a more powerful Russian army in the east.
Instead, the drones are part of a multifaceted, multimillion-dollar crowdfunding campaign that is producing millions of dollars in donations, as well as a bounty of smaller weapons and other military equipment for the Ukrainian military. To drive donations, Ukrainian officials and private companies are making direct online appeals to sympathetic foreign citizens, even as they continue to press governments for heavier weaponry, too.
One of the American entrepreneurs, Chad Kapper, said his trip began with a call to a Ukrainian racing drone friend.
“I said ‘Listen, what do you guys need if you need anything? You know, can we supply parts or whatever?’ ” recalled Kapper, the founder of a racing drone company. “And he said, ‘yes, whatever you can do.’ ”
For many of the donors involved, this conflict has unusual moral clarity.
“We made a mistake with Iraq, just like we made a mistake with Vietnam. We got ourselves into places
we shouldn’t have been,” said the other American entrepreneur who brought the drones, a Tennessee businessman who asked to remain anonymous. “These people are not asking us to show up, they’re just asking for our support.”
The online campaign has tapped into widespread Western sympathy and produced meaningful donations for the country’s war effort. Included in the donations are dual-use items such as the hobby drones; military equipment such as night vision scopes; body armor, rifles and ammunition; and free lobbying services by U.S. firms.
The biggest campaign, a social media appeal for donations by the Ukrainian Embassy in Prague, raised almost $30 million from 100,000 donors less than
three weeks after it was launched, including donations from around the world, according to Czech officials.
“We call on all to financially support the fundraiser for immediate assistance in procurement of military equipment for the Ukrainian army and citizen self-defense units,” the embassy said in February on its Facebook Page.
The Czech government, which also benefits from sales of its own weapons, said it would provide fast-track approval for the purchases.
With any crowdfunding campaign, there are concerns about swindlers, and Ukraine struggled with corruption before the war. But, as yet, there have been no reports of impropriety in the online efforts to bring in more weapons.
In perhaps the most audacious appeal, a Ukrainian company last month launched a government-approved appeal to crowdfund donations to buy a fighter jet.
“It will help me to protect my sky filled with Russian planes,” a grizzled Ukrainian fighter pilot appealed in English.
The website explained that a MIG-29 or Su fighter jet could be obtained from one of several countries for much less than the $20 million cost of a new one.
A spokesperson for the company said a week after the campaign began that they had raised about $140,000 and acknowledged the appeal was aimed at millionaires.
“I think it’s hard to believe that he could buy a fighter plane, that they could use
it purposefully and get, you know, the right people in the right training,” said Simon Schlegel, senior Ukraine analyst for the Crisis Group think tank. “I think this is really something that is probably more of a marketing ploy.”
Stephen Flanagan, a senior political scientist at Rand Corp. who has served as a director of National Security Agency defense policy, said American public engagement in the war has put pressure on the U.S. government to do more for Ukraine and “has certainly broken down some of the initial hesitancy” by the U.S. government to provide lethal support.
While sending weapons to Ukraine requires U.S. export licenses, the Commerce Department in March said it was speeding approvals for the export of guns and ammunition being sent by Americans. Donations of dual-use items face few obstacles.
Kapper’s hobby drones — known as First Person View for the images streamed live to a pilot’s goggles, are at the opposite end of the spectrum from fighter planes. But they seem to fill a gap while Ukraine waits for more supplies of military-grade drones.
In addition to carrying grenades, the drones, which reach speeds of up to 70 mph, are used by Ukrainian forces for forward observation of Russian units, artillery targeting and locating people in destroyed buildings or forests by using infrared cameras.
Many of the hobby drones, costing $1,000 and up, have a short life.