On Saturday, Ukraine’s official Twitter account announced direct requests for cryptocurrency donations in the midst of the ongoing Russian military attack.
The official account of the nation had initially shared three such messages, while the first two had been deleted. The addresses presented remained consistent, both for bitcoin and ether/USDT, however the wording of the solicitations changed with each repetition. It’s uncertain if the tweets were erased and reposted on purpose, or if the addition of bitcoin addresses triggered Twitter’s post-2020 account hacking safeguards.
Olexander Scherba, a diplomat from Ukraine, also tweeted the Ukrainian account’s contribution appeal.
Furthermore, blockchain data showed that the BTC address has received a total of 31.53804866 BTC, at the time of writing, along with the first transaction occurring on February 24.
Also, the specified address has received about 1,708 ETH. According to Etherscan, contributions have also been sent in the form of USDT, USDC, and severalnumber of non-fungible tokens.
Nonetheless, the messages have raised questions about their authenticity, particularly given that the Russian military used cyberattacks through the course of its invasion on Ukraine. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin was among many who cautioned people against donating donations without extra verification. Buterin said,
“There have been *a lot* of hacks alongside this invasion, this could easily be a hack. This info environment is as hostile as it gets, exercise extreme vigilance.”
Buterin later announced that he would be deleting his message, writing that he had received confirmation from a few sources that it’s true and that for the time being, he would remove his caution. The post further urged everyone to continue to stay watchful, and always send irreversible crypto transactions slowly and carefully.”
Ukraine embassy of WTO confirmed messages
The founder of Tron, Justin Sun, said on Twitter that he communicated with the Ukrainian embassy of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which verified the communications.
In perspective, Elliptic, a blockchain analytics business that has been monitoring donations in the aftermath of the Ukrainian invasion, announced on Saturday that almost 3,000 donations totaled $5.1 million in cryptocurrency.
The posts emerge as Russian invading forces approach Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. According to reports, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has turned down US evacuation offers.