Ukraine’s official Twitter account publishes appeals for crypto donations amid Russian invasion

The official Ukrainian Twitter account issued direct appeals for cryptocurrency donations on Saturday amid the ongoing invasion by Russian military forces.

As of press time, the official accountUkraine has posted three such messages, although the first two have been deleted. The addresses published — for bitcoin as well as ether/USDT — have remained consistent, although the wording of appeals changes with each iteration. It’s unclear if the messages were intentionally deleted and reposted, or if the inclusion of crypto addresses triggered the controls that Twitter put in place after hack account 2020.

The addresses of the donation were also shared through the verified Twitter account of Deputy Prime Minister Mikhailo Fedorov as well as on his verified Telegram channel.

When accessed via a Click on the email to contact On its website, the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, headed by Fedorov, told The Block that “the communication channels of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and Minister Mikhailo Fedorov are safe. We are not hackers. This is [the] The official position and the messages we want to share.”

“We are trying to contribute to the victory of Ukraine and raise the awareness of the international community about what is happening in Ukraine. In every possible way,” the representative added.

Ukrainian diplomat Alexander Sherpa Share it too Donation appeal from the Ukrainian account.

Blockchain data indicates that a file BTC address It has earned a total of 9.78612041 BTC as of press time, with the first transaction posted on February 24th.

Approximately 85 ETH was sent to the listed address. information from Etherscan It indicates that donations have also been made in the form of USDT and USDC as well as various non-fungible tokens.

However, the messages raised concerns about their authenticity, especially given that the Russian military had conducted cafe attack during its conquest. Among those expressing caution was Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who urged people to avoid sending donations in the absence of additional verification.

Buterin wrote, “There was *lots* of hacking besides this invasion, this could easily have been a hack.” “This information environment is as hostile as it gets, be very careful.”

Buterene wrote later That he was deleting his message, saying: “Getting some confirmation from two sources that it’s legitimate. Deleting my warning for now. But continue to be careful, and always be slow and careful when sending irreversible crypto transactions.”

Justin Sun, founder of Tron, wrote on Twitter that he had spoken to the Ukrainian Embassy for the World Trade Organization, claiming that the embassy confirmed the messages.

Elliptic, the blockchain analytics company that has been tracking donations during the Ukraine invasion, said on Saturday that $5.1 million worth of cryptocurrency has been donated in recent days across nearly 3,000 donations.

When reached for comment on the donations, Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson told The Block that about $200.00 in donations for a bitcoin address has been sent to an exchange based in Ukraine. He wrote: “It is a little suspicious that the funds are being moved to the exchange so quickly, but I have not yet been able to verify whether this is a real fundraising campaign.”

The sites come as Russian invasion forces get closer To the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Reports also indicate that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has rejected US offers to evacuate.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the posts.

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