Ukraine’s New App Lets You Donate Drones Like Ordering Pizza

Your donation goes directly to frontline drone units.

Image created by the author in Canva. Cut me some slack, I’m not a designer.

A Personal Note on Care Packages

Every war has its care packages. In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers got socks, baby wipes, and the occasional delicious sugar cookie from back home.

When I deployed to Ecuador, I specifically asked for American protein powder because we were prohibited from trying local varieties.

In Ukraine, the shopping list looks a little different: thermal imagers, drone batteries, and quadcopters with just enough range to ruin a Russian tank crew’s day.

This is a continuation of a tradition older than gunpowder. Roman soldiers stationed at Hadrian’s Wall in Britain once received footwear in the “mail”, and two thousand years later, Ukrainian drone operators are still living off the kindness of strangers.

The only difference is that this time the packages come with flight controllers and cameras.

Today, Ukraine has taken fundraising into the 21st century with the UNITED24 app, a platform that lets international donors skip the middleman and fund elite drone units directly.

It’s crowdfunding meets combat.