Fundraising campaigns are organized on Discord, Signal, and Telegram—but not on X, the platform on which NAFO has thrived for years.
“People were kicked out of X, just because Russia bought the platform,” the UK-based person told WIRED, citing the proliferation of Russian bots and pro-Kremlin accounts allowed on the platform under Musk’s administration. UX did not respond to a request for comment.
One of NAFO’s most successful and coldest fundraisers has been Ragnar Sass, head of the NAFO 69th Sniffing Brigade, which has raised over $10 million so far for the Ukrainian military. That money allowed Sass and his team to send more than 460 vehicles to the Ukrainian army, as well as more than 1,000 drones and other equipment to the ground forces. They even rescued 32 Ukrainian pets.
The Sass army not only supplies trucks, but also equips them with custom technology designed for combat like jammers and night vision cameras. The trucks and jeeps were then painted, including NAFO lettering, and driven in convoys to the front lines in Ukraine.
“What makes us different, is that we analyze every week what are the most effective solutions for electronic warfare,” Sass tells WIRED while coordinating his team’s 33rd convoy to the front in Ukraine.
Sass is an Estonian entrepreneur and co-founder of the cloud-based software company Pipedrive, which was worth more than $1 billion in 2020. He has worked in Ukraine for more than ten years, and in 2019 he launched the first incubator in Kiev called Lift99.
When the war starts in early 2022, Sass donates $20,000 to the Ukrainian army. “A lot of people followed, and at the end of the day, we raised $200,000,” Sass said. By March 2022, Sass had planned its 14-car convoy, and in June of that year, it joined NAFO.
The Sass campaign encourages donations by offering a patch to anyone who donates more than €100 ($110), and says that so far they’ve shipped more than 10,000 patches to donors in more than 50 countries.
NAFO fundraisers are necessary, says Sass, because of the slow pace with which organizations such as NATO operate in response to war situations.
“We can be very fast and very efficient,” said Sass. “We can collect money and deliver aid in a few days. As we did with Kursk: We started the campaign on Thursday evening. Next week, the vehicle and drones were given to units in Kursk. This war will be won by drones, and NATO purchases are from the stone age. “
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