New App Connects Donors Directly To Ukraine’s Drone Units

Donors can connect directly with five Ukrainian frontline drone units with a new app from UNITED24.

UNITED24

International fundraising has played a key role in the conflict in Ukraine. Now Ukraine is taking the process a step further with a new app which not only allows international donors to give directly to elite drone units, it also allows them to connect and get real time updates from the front line.

Supporting The Soldiers

Well-wishers, especially parents, have always sent minor comforts to sons in war zones. A letter in the form of a wooden tablet found at the Roman fort at Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall in the North of England mentions that the writer had sent “two pairs of socks” to the soldier at that distant outpost, almost two thousand years ago.

In Ukraine, care packages are not just warm clothing but have become highly significant, especially when it came to drones. Senior commanders were slow to appreciate that consumer quadcopters had become critical battlefield equipment, and soldiers and their supporters made up the shortfall by buying direct.

In Russia, a clumsy and inefficient bureaucracy forces mothers’ groups and others to band together to buy drones and thermal imagers. In Ukraine crowdfunding helps soldiers get hold of everything it can get with impressive results. A fundraising group run by lawyer-activist Serhii Sternenko has on its own supplied over 200,000 FPV attack drones — more than any NATO army possesses – and posts new images of drones reaching the front line every day.

There have been some creative approaches, like the ‘Sign my Rocket’ campaign for donors to send ‘messages’ to the Russian invaders written on bombs, artillery shells and rockets.

Stopping The Scammers

But alongside legitimate fundraisers there are many scammers with fake appeals, sucking money away from the frontline and infuriating fighters trying to get money for a new truck or drone jammer. Hence a recent blistering attack on scammers by Robert ‘Magyar’ Brovdi, founder of the elite Birds of Magyar – “Scammers…burn in hell you halfwits!”—saying they would be hunted down.

The official app makes sure that donors know exactly who they are giving to. It has been launched by UNITED24,an organisation set up by President Zelensky to help channel aid. The group has already raised over $1.8 billion, with international supporters including Mark Hamill and Richard Branson. The UNITED24 app – available at Google Android and Apple app stores — allows supporters anywhere in the world to donate to any of five elite drone units, considered some of the most effective at turning donations into destroyed Russian equipment.

UNITED24 say that supporters can see how their contributions are being used in real time, connect to military units, learn about their needs, and be thanked directly by the soldiers. Building a stronger connection between donors and those they help should prevent the ‘donation fatigue’ of a long war, which is reportedly hitting Russian fundraisers badly.

According to Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation. the new app is about trust, transparency and technology. Fedorov previously masterminded Ukraine’s DIIA app, ‘the state in your pocket,’ which provides instant access to a wide range of government services. By donating via the app, supporters will be able to confirm exactly where their money is going and see the results.

The Changing Face Of Fundraising

Apps like eBay, Airbnb and Uber use smartphone technology to build trust networks and enable feedback, creating giant new marketplaces in the process. The UNITED24 app aims to do the same for defence fundraising.

The app also represents another step towards purchasing autonomy at the frontline. Ukraine’s government-backed Army of Drones points system already awards points for battlefield kills which units trade for more drones and other gear. The new app gives soldiers another way of bypassing procurement channels.

By tapping into a global, digital marketplace, Ukraine hopes to access millions of supporters seeking a direct, secure way of donating to the cause. The scheme could easily be expanded to include, for example, the purchase of defensive turrets or low-cost interceptor drones to stop Russian Shahed attacks, or, more controversially, long-range weapons to hit back at Russia.

Potentially the media coverage of every new action by Russia – or every Ukrainian success – could help bring in more money strengthen Ukraine’s efforts.

A donation app will not help with the sort of high-level funding only governments can provide. But by bypassing political and other barriers, it can get vital equipment swiftly and efficiently to where it is needed most. Drone units are very efficient in terms of bang for your buck, as a $500 FPV can easily wreck a multimillion-dollar tank (or even a strategic bomber). A little money now may be more important than promises of millions which never materialise.