Patreon Has Deleted A Ukrainian Charity Fund For Supposedly Aiding The Country's Military

February 25th, 2022 - 11:36 AM EST by Adam Downer

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Save a life in ua patreon depicting options for contributors to donate armaments to the ukrainian military.

Social media users were left with raised eyebrows yesterday after some users began passing around a link to a Patreon account inviting others to donate as a means of funding the production of missiles and bombs for Ukraine amidst the country's conflict with Russia.


It appears the chief spreader of this idea is Twitter user @levelsio, who announced he had become a $1,000/mo supporter of the Ukraine army. "Do the same and buy them some tanks and missiles if you can."

@levelsio linked to a Patreon run by the Come Back Alive foundation, a veteran's rehabilitation foundation that has also aided the military by donating bulletproof vests and night-vision goggles in the past. A quick perusal of the Patreon, which is now deleted but archived here, shows the organization's mission statement:

We are the Come Back Alive Foundation. One of the largest charity foundations in Ukraine. As you know, we help veterans, in particular we coorganize Invictus Games in Ukraine. The money raised here will fund the operations of our media and veteran divisions, visible to 2,500,000 of our Facebook followers. Our patrons will receive the stories, audio and video that had only became possible due to their support. Most of our content will be published on our Facebook and website. But we'll make somethings for Patreon exclusively and will show the backstage of what we do. The posts and videos created with the help of your donations will show the rehabilitation of Ukrainian veterans and their return to a peaceful life.

It seems the confusion was a mix of careless reading on @levelsio's part and arguably confusing marketing on Come Back Alive's part. The Patreon had seven tiers, and each tier was named after a kind of ammunition: the lowest tier was "Bullet," the next "Projectile," etc. Becoming a "Projectile"-tier donor did not mean one was funding projectiles for Ukraine to use when combatting Russian forces.

Despite the stated goals of the organization on its Patreon page, the idea that Patreon was hosting a page funding the Ukrainian military took off, as users expressed their horror that Patreon was purportedly war profiteering.


Despite (or perhaps because of) the confusion, the Come Back Alive Foundation racked up astounding pledged funds, with over $431,000 per month pledged before Patreon stepped in and deleted the account.

In a statement, Patreon announced they had terminated the account because Come Back Alive claimed on their website that they had used funds to help train soldiers and purchase tactical equipment. It is unclear whether Come Back Alive was using their Patreon funds to finance these endeavors.

"The website of the organization says they use contributions to finance and train military personnel," Patreon stated. "Specifically, they claim to use funds they received for the following:

“funds were used for… more than 1,500 tablets with software for Gunnya-Armor artillerymen, 230 quadcopters, 45 mobile surveillance systems…, and more than 60 military vehicles.”
“The organization also initiates the creation and implementation of new technical solutions,” including “models of artillery weapons.”
“trained 350 snipers, more than 2,000 sappers and more than 3,000 gunners, and training is being conducted to train UAV operators.”

"We don’t allow Patreon to be used for funding weapons or military activity," Patreon continued. "It is a violation of our policies, and so we have removed the page. All remaining funds in the account will be refunded to contributors." Patreon then linked to several charities the refunded supporters could donate to instead.

The move was widely unpopular on Twitter, as several users pointed out that the Come Back Alive Foundation had an active Patreon page for seven years, implying that if it was in violation of Patreon's policies for that long, it shouldn't have been deleted just because it got popular.


Come Back Alive has yet to make a statement regarding the use of their Patreon funds and the deletion of their account.



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