In the first week of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Ukrainian government has reached out to the crypto community on Twitter to raise funds to support its civilians and troops. Ukraine has now started accepting donations in Bitcoin 

BTC

$18,138

, Ether 

ETH

$1,400

 and Tether 

USDT

$1.00

.

Amid military threats throughout the country, Ukraine has sought help from numerous international organizations. However, considering that time is of the essence, the official Twitter account of Ukraine extended its call for help to Crypto Twitter.

Additionally, Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine, also shared three wallet addresses, urging the crypto community to donate and help Ukraine fight against Russian troops. While the BTC and ETH addresses remain the same, the USDT wallet address is TRC-20-based and is different than the address shared by Ukraine’s official Twitter handle.

Prominent crypto entrepreneur Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, initially suspected that the accounts requesting crypto donations were hacked. However, American diplomat Tomicah Tillemann later confirmed their legitimacy with Ukrainian Ambassador Olexander Scherba.

Ukrainian civilians-turned-refugees have reported the loss of access to their fiat savings and credit cards. The United Nations reported that over 150,000 people have been displaced from Ukraine as of Saturday.

While confusion has prevailed about the intended use of the crypto donations, Buterin shared another initiative, this one a decentralized autonomous organization that focuses solely on Ukrainian citizens.

UkraineDAO, led by Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, launched with the release of a one-of-one nonfungible token (NFT) of the Ukrainian flag to raise funds for Ukrainian civilian organizations working to help those suffering from the war.

On Thursday, Cointelegraph reported that Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence had received numerous requests from foreigners requesting it accept crypto donations.

Although unconfirmed, it is now believed that donations to the addresses shared by Ukraine will be used directly by the government, while the DAO proceedings will be redirected toward citizens’ welfare via an NGO. 

Related: Crypto community reacts to Russia’s war in Ukraine

Since Thursday, prominent crypto entrepreneurs have taken proactive efforts to aid Ukrainians. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the first, offering monetary support to FTX traders from Ukraine.