UNITED24, Monobank Partner With Mark Hamill For 'Star Wars'-inspired Fundraising For Ukraine

Mark Hamill bid farewell to the franchise that launched his career in style at a futuristic hanger filled with life-size X-Wing fighters in Los Angeles AFP / VALERIE MACON

KEY POINTS

The fundraiser will send packs of salt to 500 contributors who donate at least UAH 5
At least 10 packs of salt will bear Mark Hamill's signature
Funds collected from the campaign will be used to purchase 300 remote-controlled drones for Ukraine

UNITED24 and Monobank have partnered with actor Mark Hamill to launch a fundraising campaign with the aim of collecting funds to help Ukraine purchase drones to use in the war against Russia.

The fundraising campaign will send out 500 packs of unique iodized salt from the state-owned company Artemsil, which will be raffling off the prize among those who contribute at least UAH 10 ($0.27) or more.

The first 100 participants who contribute at least UAH 100,000 ($2,701) will receive a salt pack signed by the commander of the ground forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi. Another 10 packs of salt will also be signed by Hamill, the ambassador for UNITED24 and an actor well-known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, according to a press release.

The project aims to raise UAH 59.2 million ($1.6 million) for Ukraine to purchase 300 DJI Mavic 3T Thermal drones. The remote-controlled drones are equipped with thermal imaging and a camera with 56x hybrid zoom. The drones can also fly up to an altitude of 600 meters with a range of up to 15 kilometers.

The fundraising campaign began on Feb. 28 and will end on March 2, 10 p.m. local time. The results of the raffle will be announced via the OGo Telegram channel.

The fundraising campaign comes as the war stretches into its 13th month. Since the war began in February 2022, Russia has been hit by several drone attacks that it blamed on Ukrainian forces.

On Tuesday, Moscow Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said a drone crashed near the village of Gubastovo, located 280 miles from Russia's border with Ukraine. While Vorobyov did not specify whether the drone was Ukrainian, he did note that the Russian FSB had responded to the crash site, as per a translation via Google Translate.

Two other drones targeted civilian infrastructure in Krasnodar and Adygea, both of which lie east of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. No casualties were reported in the attacks.

Ukraine has yet to claim responsibility for the strikes.