While there are growing concerns in the West about Russia using cryptocurrencies for evading sanctions, some Russian people have actually begun to use their Bitcoin (BTC) for supporting the Ukrainian people. Creator of Mr. Freeman, the animated web series, and a renowned Russian animation producer, Pavel Muntyanurged anti-war Russians to support the people in Ukraine amidst the ongoing invasion of the country by Russia. On Tuesday, he took to social media for announcing that he had opened a crypto donation address that Russians can use for supporting the Ukrainian citizens anonymously. This is in light of the ban Russia has imposed on its citizens for helping the Ukrainian people.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia had issued an official warning on Sunday that they would consider any assistance to the Ukrainian people amidst the ‘special operation’ will be regarded as high treason. It said that Russians would be subject to a jail time of about 20 years if they are found to be supporting Ukraine in any way. Therefore, Muntyan has urged the Russian people to offer their financial support to those who have suffered because of the military attack. Russians can now use his crypto address for donating any tokens that can be found on the BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, HECO, Polygon and Avalanche blockchainsand don’t have to disclose their identity.
He said that people can now help Ukraine while maintaining their anonymity. He added that the money would be used for providing essential goods to the Ukrainian people and support the families of soldiers who are fighting in the Ukrainian army. He also stressed that the funds raised would only be utilized for helping the innocents and not used for any kind of military operations. The donation address has so far managed to accumulate Tether (USDT) stablecoin of about $350,000 and Ether (ETH) worth $1,500.
A number of crypto donation channels have also been established by various crypto companies and the Ukrainian government for supporting the people of Ukraine during the Russian attack. As of Monday, the total amount of crypto donations that have been made to the charities, military and government in Ukraine is around $40 million. Muntyan’s animation series has a fictional character by the name of ‘Mr. Freeman’, who promotes principles of freedom and is also critical of the lifestyle of modern men. There are more than 1.5 million subscribers of the series on YouTube and its combined views are more than 150 million.
Muntyan has been active in the crypto space for quite some time and has also collaborated with Free TON for introducing his own cryptocurrency. This was one of the crypto initiatives that had come from the Telegram Open Network project. He also has an interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and has launched a number of NFT drops on various platforms. Other than his interest in crypto, he is also vocal about his support for the opponents of Russian president Vladimir Putin. He is now offering people a way to assist people in Ukraine anonymously.
