According to reports, the Ukrainian government is set to launch NFT tokens to commemorate the history of Russia’s invasion of the Eastern European country.
Digital Assets: A tool against Aggression
If you asked most international policy experts a few months ago about the usefulness of NFTs in wars, you’d have gotten a lot of confused faces, and a few might have questioned your sanity. In March 2022, digital assets, including NFTs, have become some of the most unique and reliable tools that Ukrainians have employed in their fight against #Russianaggression in Ukraine.
Now, Ukrainian leaders are employing NFTs on a larger scale with the scheduled launch of their NFT collection. According to Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation, the upcoming collection will be “like a museum of the Russian-Ukrainian war.”
As of this report, Ukraine has received over $60 million in crypto-related donations since launching a global appeal for donations. Alex Bornyakov, the Ukrainian deputy minister of digital transformation, that crypto-related donations have been used to procure medicine, food, bulletproof vests, and critical supplies needed by the armed forces.
The Ukrainian government planned to airdrop NFTs to donors earlier in March but pulled the plug shortly before the scheduled airdrop. On 3 March 2022, the Ukrainian government first mentioned its proposal to sell NFTs, which came after the cancellation of the planned airdrop. This means that Ukraine has been working hard to release proper NFTs that’ll help holders get their money’s worth.
Digital Diplomacy in the Age of War
Ukraine has made considerable headway in its digital diplomacy push to help fight back against Russian Aggression. One of the results that Ukraine’s digital diplomacy has produced is the blocking of Russian state media content, and in cases where state media isn’t blocked, it’s labelled.
Ukraine believes that digital media is one of Putin and the Kremlin’s most potent weapons in their fight against Ukraine. According to Bornyakov, “We convinced social media platforms, international companies, to either block Russia, go out from Russia or completely change their information policy.”
After Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp moved to allow calls for violence against Putin and members of Russia’s armed forces to appear and stay on its platforms, Russia moved to block Instagram in the country on 11 March 2022. It’s not clear if Meta’s other platforms will also be banned, but Facebook’s primary platform is already banned in the country.
Supporting Ukraine through Digital Assets
Ukraine isn’t just banking on the benevolence of donors; the team behind its fundraising NFTs truly cares about the value holders get from the Ukraine NFTs. The people behind the project want its NFTs to be good-looking, cool, relatable, and more, and to achieve this, time and patience are necessary.
