- Title: Grieving Ukrainians pay for ‘revenge’ messages on army shells
- Date: 25th August 2022
- Summary: KYIV, UKRAINE (AUGUST 2, 2022) (REUTERS) COMPUTER SCREEN SHOWING WEBSITE OF REVENGEFOR.COM, TEXT MESSAGE BEING WRITTEN FOLLOWING A DONATION VARIOUS OF CREATOR OF REVENGEFOR.COM, OLEKSANDR ARHAT, EXPLAINING THE PROJECT
- Embargoed: 8th September 2022 12:39
- Keywords: Charity Russian invasion Ukraine war
- Location: KYIV, KYIV REGION, UNDISLOSED LOCATION, UKRAINE
- City: KYIV, KYIV REGION, UNDISLOSED LOCATION, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA00C051725082022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: When Russian forces bombed Iryna Palamarchuk's property in early March, both her family house and the home she built herself in 2020 were brought to the ground. Five months on, she is still struggling to cope with emotions.
"This is not even anger or resentment. I even can’t understand what is going on in my soul," she said as she walked through the site of her flattened homes where she raised her daughter.
"These people (Russians) are dead to me," Iryna, who was born to a Russian mother, said, adding that she felt surprisingly happy after her daughter donated to a crowdfunding group that allows donors to have personalized messages written on artillery shells used by the Ukrainian army.
"I am a very kind person... But I am happy that in such a way this projectile showed them my pain and my hatred towards them," Palamchuk said.
The Palamchuk family is among thousands of people who donated to the local crowdfunding website that raises money for the Ukrainian army by selling personalized messages on the shells. Support for such crowdfunding groups has recently grown, particularly among Ukrainians who are mourning for their loss.
"This is quite a personal signature," Yuliana Romaniv said, who lost her uncle Andriy in the war. Video sent to her by the crowdfunding website Revengefor showed Ukrainian soldiers shouting: 'For uncle Andriy" before firing from an undisclosed position.
"You feel powerless. I do what I can," said Romaniv as she explained how difficult it was to deal with the loss of her favorite uncle.
"We got an order: 'For my furry friend Mr. Kotovski'. On one hand, it sounds funny, but on the other – you understand there is a certain story behind it when people want to take revenge for a pet.," said Ihor Repeta, the software developer for one of the crowdfunding websites, Revengefor.
The group has so far collected 67,420 USD for the Ukrainian army by offering the chance to deliver a message on bombs and missiles before they are fired.
When asked whether this was an appropriate way to crowdfund for weapons, Revengefor creator Oleksandr Arhat said they were not "raising money for crime".
"Whoever considers it unfair, could just not donate."
There are at least two other crowdfunding groups campaigning to support the Ukrainian army, offering donors to write private messages on artillery items.
As Ukraine marked six months of the war with Russia, the invasion has caused thousands of deaths, forced over a third of Ukraine's 41 million people from their homes, and destroyed whole cities, the conflict is largely locked in a stalemate.
Russia has repeatedly denied its forces are aiming at civilian targets. On Wednesday (August 24), Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting in Uzbekistan that Moscow had deliberately slowed what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine to avoid civilian casualties.
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