For a year now, Ukrainian Artem Poliukhovitch, 32, had been thinking about how to propose to his girlfriend. He imagined kneeling on a beach or making the proposal on a balloon ride. After all, he decided that the order would be written on a Soviet-era artillery shell fired at Russian military personnel.
“It can be considered an aggressive proposal, in a way”, he says. She say yes. Her enthusiasm matches that of others — several hundred, who paid thousands of dollars to have their messages written on cartridges used by the Ukrainian army.
War is often steeped in dark humor, and soldiers have long scribbled graffiti on munitions aimed at the enemy. Selling these messages marks a creative, if macabre, turn in this custom. Another way found by the Ukrainians to raise funds to resist the invasion by Russia.
One of the projectiles bore the phrase “This is a gay bomb”. Another said, “Fighting fascism is a full-time job.” And another was signed: “From Silicon Valley, with love.”
These latest stickers, so to speak, were commissioned by signmyrocket.com, the most prominent of several fundraising initiatives in Ukraine’s burgeoning custom pump sector.
The fundraiser, which calls itself “artillery mail,” was created by Anton Sokolenko, 21, an information technology student, to make up for a drop in donations to the Center for Assistance to the Army, Veterans and Their Families, a charity in which he became a volunteer in March.
He started the activity on a Telegram channel and then moved to a website, to allow international customers to have access. Now requests come from all over the world, he said, with more than 95% of texts in English. The website says it has raised more than $200,000 in donations for the charity in less than three months.
Buyers receive photos of your message on the projectile. For a higher price, the institution also provides videos when it is shot — “to show friends or post on social media,” Sokolenko explained.
On the site, users can choose a weapon, type in the message and then make the payment. Prices range from US$150 (R$760) for a phrase on a howitzer to US$3,000 (R$15,200) for a writing on the side of a tank turret.
The website says the charity handed over 200 permanent markers to soldiers, who offered to write on weapons and photograph the result in exchange for cars, drones or optical equipment that the charity bought across Europe with the proceeds. Sokolenko says the organization had many contacts in the Armed Forces and that he had contacted soldiers by word of mouth.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
For some people, buying a message is a way to help the Ukrainian Army and feel directly involved in the war effort. For others, it’s an opportunity to express their anger at Russia.
Sokolenko describes the process as an informal way for military platoons to support themselves.
“It’s not very official and not very authoritative,” he says. “But they have to, because we can give them things that our government can’t give them right now.”
Cristina Repetti, 32, who lives in Chicago, says she was shocked by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s action and ordered several messages in projectiles for friends and family. She expresses some unease at the idea of ​​weapons being used to kill soldiers who might be in the war against her will, but her desire to help Ukraine was greater. “I can’t just sit around doing nothing.”
On one cartridge, she ordered the message “I love you Vinny”, hoping to get her boyfriend back. “He likes dark romantic things. And I thought putting our love in a projectile that would hit a Russian tank would really make an impression.”
