Ukraine is now collecting dogecoin donations to aid its fight against Russia’s invasion of the country, and the country’s vice prime minister is pushing billionaire Elon Musk to contribute to the cause.
“We start to accept donations in meme coin. Now even meme can support our army and save lives from Russian invaders. $DOGE owners of the world, @elonmusk, @BillyM2k, let’s do it,” Fedorov tweeted
Dogecoin is now worth more than the Russian ruble, according to Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, which has collapsed in value as a result of punishing international sanctions. Fedorov specifically cited Musk and dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus in his plea.
The ruble, by contrast, was worth less than one US cent as Russia’s economy struggled to cope with the sanctions, which included the deactivation of select Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system and penalties imposed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.Fedorov’s request was quickly answered by Markus, who revealed that he had donated some dogecoin.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Musk, a well-known dogecoin promoter, had yet to comment to Federov’s tweet. However, the entrepreneur has been a key player in efforts to help Ukraine, providing the country with access to SpaceX’s “Starlink” internet system in the event that its own networks were breached during the invasion.
Musk’s company, Tesla, began accepting dogecoin as payment for some products on its website in January.
After making minimal success in capturing Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv and other targets, Russia has increased its attacks in recent days.
The Russian military’s offensive has included extensive shelling of civilian population centres, notably the Kharkiv’s Freedom Square.
Ukraine had previously asked for donations of popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum to help with its resistance operations. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian government’s official Twitter account expressed gratitude for “the global crypto community’s support and donations as we protect our freedom.”
