Rivalries, Regulators Put Aside As Big Tech, FinTech Join Forces To Help Ukraine, Fight Common Foe

As Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba continues pressing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for a ceasefire in Ukraine that hasn’t held so far, FinTechs are taking some matters into their own hands, getting various forms of aid to embattled Ukrainians.

Among the most high-profile efforts is Fintechs for Ukraine which quickly mobilized to raise money for Save the Children’s Ukraine Appeal.

The fundraiser was initially organized by virtual IBAN provider Monneo. Managing director Lili Metodieva said in a widely published statement that “We’re urging businesses in the fintech sector to come together and make a real difference, whether that be through donations, or by helping to promote this message online.”

Revolut Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky, who was born in Russia and whose father is Ukrainian, posted a letter to the company’s website on March 1 announcing “instant, fee-free donations to our customers in the UK, Lithuania, Ireland, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria, Bulgaria and Singapore.”

He said donations were north of “1 million pounds within 24 hours” adding that “every donation made to the Red Cross Ukraine appeal will be matched by Revolut. For every pound or euro or złoty or franc donated by a Revolut customer to the appeal, Revolut will donate the same again, from today for the next 7 days, up to 1.5 million pounds.”

As of March 11, Revolut donations had reportedly hit $10.9 million.

On March 2, Uber announced that though Ukraine operations are paused, “we have provided advance payments to all drivers in Ukraine, and we are exploring how Ukrainian refugees can have access to work on the Uber platform in neighboring countries where we operate.”

Uber has enabled in-app donations to the International Rescue Committee, matching in-app donations up to $1 million. It said, “We are also making an additional $500,000 donation to the International Federation of Red Cross and World Food Program USA in support of the UN World Food Programme’s humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and neighboring countries.”

See also: FinTechs Join Ukraine Fund Appeal

Crypto Joins the Fight

With some media outlets dubbing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the “first crypto war,” crypto risk platform Merkle Science is maintaining a live Crypto for Ukraine site to track donations.

And not all tech aid flowing to Ukraine is of the “fin” variety.

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that an unofficial “IT army” answered the Ukrainian government’s call to use cyber-chops to fight the fight, with astounding results.

“Websites for the Russian Foreign Ministry as well as the country’s largest stock exchange and a key state-owned bank were offline as loosely organized groups of volunteer hackers pledged to retaliate against the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine,” the Journal reported.

See also: Donated Crypto Assets Distributed to Ukrainian Army, Volunteers

The article added, “In Ukraine, the volunteer IT force enlisted by the government isn’t acting alone. Yegor Aushev, co-founder of Ukrainian company Cyber Unit Technologies, has in recent days been using Facebook and LinkedIn to solicit volunteer hackers from Ukraine, Belarus and other countries for dozens of cyber projects.”

See also: Today in FinTech Ukraine: Ukraine Receives Almost $100M in Crypto Donations; Payment Platform Hedgewiz to Aid Ukrainian Workers; Airbnb.org Helps Refugees

Big Tech Goes to War

Doing their part for embattled Ukrainians and their supporters inside Russia itself, Big Tech platforms are assisting by using their collective muscle against Russian war propaganda.

On Tuesday (Mar. 8) Amazon said in a statement that “AWS has been working closely with Ukrainian customers and partners to keep their applications secure. Teams of Account Managers, Security Specialists, Solutions Architects, and other technical professionals are working around the clock to help customers and partners at this critical time.”

CNET recently reported that “Big social networks, including Facebook-owner Meta, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube face familiar questions about dealing with disinformation and propaganda. All three have placed restrictions on Russian state-run media’s access to ad platforms and continue to fact-check posts deemed false. Microsoft and Google have limited downloads of Russian state-run media services from their app stores.”

Microsoft is working with the Ukrainian government, even advising on military movements.

A Microsoft blog posted Feb. 28 states that “Several hours before the launch of missiles or movement of tanks on February 24, Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) detected a new round of offensive and destructive cyberattacks directed against Ukraine’s digital infrastructure. We immediately advised the Ukrainian government about the situation, including our identification of the use of a new malware package.”

The post adds, “we have provided threat intelligence and defensive suggestions to Ukrainian officials regarding attacks on a range of targets, including Ukrainian military institutions and manufacturers and several other Ukrainian government agencies. This work is ongoing.”

See also: Social Media Platforms Face a Difficult Situation to Deal with Misinformation