As we speak, the Come Again Alive Basis is without doubt one of the largest, most distinguished teams aiding Ukrainian forces. It was based in 2014 by Vitaliy Deynega, a Kyiv-based volunteer who started to lift cash and provide bulletproof vests to troopers combating within the Donbas area of Ukraine instantly after Russia annexed Crimea. Deynega wrote “Come Again Alive” on every vest, inspiring the identify of his group. Its efforts have been promoted by the Ukrainian authorities, which has referred to as Come Again Alive “Ukraine’s predominant charity fund.” Potential donors have additionally been directed to the Nationwide Financial institution of Ukraine’s “particular account” via American and British Chase Financial institution accounts. However on Thursday, the muse encountered a serious setback: certainly one of its major sources of worldwide funding, the crowdfunding platform Patreon, kicked it off. It remained offline as of 1 p.m. US Jap time on Friday, February 25.
A Patreon spokesperson cited the corporate’s coverage on “dangerous and unlawful actions” to justify the transfer, saying: “Patreon doesn’t permit any campaigns concerned in violence or buying of army gear, no matter their trigger. We’ve got suspended the marketing campaign in query whereas we examine.” The backlash from Ukrainians was swift. Critics accused the platform of reducing off a vital lifeline for self-defense in opposition to Russia and questioned why it had made the choice now, provided that the web page had been on-line for years. Patreon has turn into the go-to supply for crowdfunding on this battle; different established Ukrainian organizations just like the English-language media outlet the Kyiv Unbiased additionally increase funds on the platform. To date, GoFundMe has not launched any statements on the Ukrainian crowdfunding that’s happening on its platform. Such platforms maintain large energy for his or her capacity to assist folks increase and transfer huge sums of money. However one downside they face is that, particularly within the fog of conflict, it isn’t all the time clear who’s giving and receiving cash. There are already numerous Ukraine-related scams floating across the web. To supply an instance, one Twitter account was beforehand used for playing. Now it’s sharing Bitcoin hyperlinks and claims to be elevating cash to assist fund the battle in opposition to Russia.