People's Support

From the BBC:

"Crowdfunding in Ukraine's DIY war"

Public donations are helping the Ukrainian government's war effort as troops try to close in on pro-Russian separatists in the east.  Money and supplies are reaching the military via Facebook groups, websites, text messages and volunteer organisations. Less than a month after then President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia, the defence ministry issued an appeal for help for the impoverished armed forces.  Over the next four months, $11.7m (£6.85m) was reportedly donated - including $2.8m from mobile phones, by people sending text messages to a special number, 565, set up by the defence ministry. As it became obvious that Ukraine's military lacked even the most basic supplies, activists set up many online groups to collect and deliver donations to the army.  Wings Phoenix has become one of the most popular. "Our task is to provide the Ukrainian army with clothes and shoes, protect and improve it as soon as possible," says the group's mission statement. It has more than 35,000 followers on Facebook and claims to have collected more than $850,000 (£500,000).   The type of goods donated is almost entirely non-lethal, ranging from food, medicines and toiletries to bullet-proof vests, helmets and binoculars.  There have even been reports in Ukrainian media about members of the public giving the army their own armoured personnel carriers, which had apparently been bought as surplus military equipment. Some of the donations go directly to individual soldiers. Activist Nataliya Vetvitskaya, who has 16,000 followers on Facebook, visits wounded soldiers in hospitals and then posts their bank details online so that money can be transferred directly into their accounts.  Fans of football club Dnipro set up a donation point in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk and groups have been sending activists to supermarkets to encourage shoppers to buy and donate food on the spot.  The donations are then delivered by volunteers to military units involved in fighting in the east. Facebook group Army SOS gives details of how the money is spent, posting photos of goods being delivered to military units in the field. Some groups are more specialised. One Facebook community is dedicated to making and supplying the army with bullet-proof vests, and another to procuring medicines. Luta Sprava focuses on t-shirts, which seem to be in short supply in the army, too. "There is no such thing as too many t-shirts for our guys," is its motto. "Buy one t-shirt for yourself, and another will be presented to a soldier." Many, if not most, discussions in online groups helping the Ukrainian army are in Russian. Yet officials and media in Moscow have suggested that Russian speakers in Ukraine are being threatened by the military and need protection. But are the Ukrainian army's separatist foes getting similar public support? There is little evidence of that in Ukraine. However, donation campaigns have been launched across Russia to help the rebel self-proclaimed "people's republics" in Ukraine's east.  Public donations from Russia mainly consist of money, food, medicines and non-lethal supplies. Some of this aid was reportedly received by men and women involved in actual combat. But most of the donation drives in Russia are aimed at helping refugees from Ukraine's troubled Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Campaigns to recruit combatants to go to Ukraine are having more impact on the conflict. In many cases, this is done via social media, within right-wing and paramilitary groups such as cossacks.  Novaya Gazeta, a liberal newspaper, alleged that some of the Russian Defence Ministry's conscription offices were now being used to recruit separatist fighters to resist the Ukrainian army. In Kiev's view, it is that kind of recruitment - as well as the alleged supply of weapons from Russia - that fuels this conflict. Without them, the crisis would have petered out long ago, Ukrainian officials say.

^ I wrote about this at the beginning of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and it seems to have continued despite months of conflict. It still amazes me how the Ukrainian people continue to support their territory integrity and their soldiers (both in words and in actions.) It reminds me of the days of World War 2 when the US Homefront gave everything and anything to support their troops and the common fight. The US hasn't seen that kind of patriotism or support since 1945 (which is unfortunate.) The majority of Americans will simply talk and then do nothing to actually support the troops (not even sending a Christmas card to an unknown soldier, etc.) The people of the Ukraine do not have much money, but they have been giving whatever they can to support their country. It also amazes me that the Ukrainian people don't simply attack everything Russian (despite Russia supporting the pro-Russia terrorists in eastern Ukraine and Russia annexing the Crimea.) The Ukrainians still speak Russian and help Russian-speakers in their country while the pro-Russia terrorists are waging an ethnic cleansing of anyone non-Russian (ie Ukrainians, Crimean, Tartar, Jewish, etc.) That fact right there sums up the whole conflict and who is in the right and who is in the wrong. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28459772