"During this period, we have provided 16 units with everything they need to effectively hunt down enemy UAVs: pickup trucks, interceptor drones and related equipment.
The total value of the aid we have provided so far is UAH 39,581,680 ($958,960 USD) β "
"But the project still needs your help, as our goal is 1000 downed UAVs, and at least 13 new units are waiting for their cars and drones to join the 'DroneFall'.
Translation ends here. I want to pick up here and help other westerners understand how worthwhile it is to navigate the hurdles to donating to Come Back Alive.
Obviously, most of us can't donate via Monobank.bit.ly/3WxEy7X
Yet Come Back Alive is Ukraine's #1 private foundation for supporting ZSU. It's been solid since 2014. They have gone above and beyond what most of us think of as a πΊπ¦ charity.
Many westerners will be blocked from donating through banking networks, because Come Back Alive is authorized to buy arms directly for ZSU. I've seen others encounter this issue at events which had people donate to Ukrainian charities for admission.
Still, find a way.
Find a way, because if we squeeze this issue into monetary terms, military aid is approximately 10x more cost-effective than hospitalization or refugee aid or reconstruction. They are directly taking on the horrors of war at the source - russia's war machine.
Try your available methods in order of preference.
I've long had to use ETH to donate to Come Back Alive. They now support TRC20, a currency tethered to the dollar, which counters the volatile valuation of USD to ETH and all the resulting confusion. savelife.in.ua/en/donate-en/#β¦
It's been some time since I had the chance to volunteer for Come Back Alive, but it will always be something I'm proud of, apart from any of the messiness, toxic competitiveness, and slander that's plagued western support.
I'll keep supporting them of my own accord.
@BackAndAlive are the gold standard for helping ZSU. They are able to take defender's needs from a big-picture, end-to-end design perspective.
Keep them at the top of your list, along with official unit fundraisers and advocacy to our officials for our government's aid. π«ΆπΊπ¦
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Tearing down the "divine right of kings" - a team effort!
While French thinkers were π€― over free π indigenous societies, they also talked with Cossacks who had elected leaders - in 1648. Ukraine's Orlyk devised a constitution with separation of powers in 1710. Fascinating π§΅π
This means that the US Constitution came from a rebellion against "divine right" and monarchic power, and Ukraine's Orlyk was absolutely part of this conversation.
Through Montesquieu, Ukraine was no further than one degree of separation from the US's founding inspirations.
There's an overlap between Ukrainians and the First Nations of the Americas:
They're deep-rooted and indigenous.
They had societies founded on freedom, persuasion, and responsibility to the whole.
Their attitudes towards kings blew Europe's minds. pbs.org/native-americaβ¦
The video in question. You can clearly see there's a huge logo visible from the street. See, I found this video memorable because GL was falsely claiming authority to arrest its critics in Ukraine.
Units can't arrest critics under Ukrainian martial law, much less an NGO.
A unit, GL is not. HUR made that clear.
Pay attention to dates. GL doesn't get to retcon times they claimed to be in Budanov's chain of command during the very timeframe HUR said Mamuka had no contract.
I've seen their behavior since 2022, when they attacked @UK4UA's efforts which saved a defender's leg. "NurseAnna" lied about her involvement, patient consent, deleted/rebooted her threads with moved goalposts.
@BackAndAlive @BackAndAlive is cool like this. Their thinking is big-picture and end to end, because they were founded by Ukraine's veterans and have been at this for 11 years.
Just look at the success they've had with "Dronefall"...
@BackAndAlive For the equivalent of $6 million USD, they've shot down 1,546 russian drones. That's 676 Zalas, 511 Supercams, 182 Orlans, 177 others (you saw that Lancet some weeks ago, right??)
Though I suggest we be wary that Grok will be increasingly poisoned as a source, just this moment, I tip my hat.
It's done a great job of putting words to how the principles of how to support Ukraine connect to what I learned from standing with other marginalized people.
I endorse this message.
I prompted Grok to look at three threads: Jim Crow-style voter suppression, black rights to armed self-defense, and Edmund Ruffin, and asked Grok how this would influence my support of Ukraine.
This explainer has some solid points, @Greg_Palast, and helps to explain many of russia's excuses for war. I deeply value your work on US progressive issues. There are really solid points on how russia is aggressively attacking Ukraine's historic identity and autonomy.
Most simply and urgently: "Kyiv" not "Kiev", for the same reason we take down Confederate flags and monuments. Those spellings are a russian way of asserting imperialist ownership and historic revisionism.
I heartily recommend this thread by a respected Ukrainian author in Britain: x.com/komarnyckyj/stβ¦
I can condense other things I've learned among Ukrainians thus:
Values are the biggest reason for russia's determination to destroy Ukraine, but Putin lied a bit there. It's not russian values versus western so much as russian versus Ukraine's. He lied because the war is founded on a genocidal premise that Ukraine doesn't exist.
It's russia's traditional values vs Ukraine's are, not so much the west's. It is the vertical power of russia's tsars and their nihilistic servile death cult, versus Ukraine's horizontal hromada, a democratic and even somewhat anarchistic co-operative view which values individuals and their choices.
@Greg_Palast In Ukraine, they elected their hetmans beginning in 1648. russia is still cast in the mold of Ivan the Terrible.
This is not a worshipful, subjugated russian eye on this tsar Ivan. This painter, Ilya Repin, was Ukrainian. russia erased that to cook the books for its tsars.
@Greg_Palast In russia, they often quote Nikolai Gogol's surreal book "Dead Souls" and a passage about a three-horse chariot called the troika, a menacing, mysterious expression of power.
Left out: Gogol was Ukrainian, and the troika description wasn't a compliment.