by Harold Hutchison
Americans are spending as much as $3,000 to get their names on Ukrainian weapons and munitions, according to a report by the Washington Post.
Ukrainian forces will scrawl messages on munitions used against Russian forces invading the country for as little as $30 on an 82mm mortar round, the Post reported. $3,000 could earn the donor a Ukrainian T-72 main battle tank named in their honor.
“We got bigger and bigger shells,” Sign My Rocket co-founder Anton Sokolenko told the Post, saying that they realized that offering the chance to put messages on more powerful weapons could raise more money. He claims to have raised $150,000 for Ukrainian forces, the Post reported.
New: Americans & Europeans are shelling out thousands of dollars to get their names & slogans written on grenades, mortars, tanks, Buk missiles and landmines before they are fired at Russian troops in Ukraine. It has become an unusual & booming crowdfunding business in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/UZniojHL7V
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) August 17, 2022
One account on Telegram offered people the chance to have their names on a rocket for $40 or on a “Buk” surface-to-air missile for $400, according to Task and Purpose. One message on a Buk surface-to-air missile system said “Not for use on Malaysian Airlines,” a reference to the 2014 downing of a passenger jet by Russian-backed separatists, the Washington Post reported.
Bomb graffiti has been a long tradition during warfare. A Getty Images photo from 1998 shows a laser-guided bomb with a cartoonish face and the word “SPAM!” on it, and multiple examples exist from World War II.
The Ukrainian embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Harold Hutchison is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
