The United States will provide Ukraine with an additional $100 million in civilian security assistance, the State Department said on Saturday.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the assistance would be to build the capacity of the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs with a view to aid "border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure."
Later on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it was sowing a deep hatred for Russia among his people, as constant artillery barrages and aerial bombings are reducing cities to rubble, killing civilians and driving others into shelters, leaving them to scrounge for food and water to survive.
"You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes," Zelenskyy said in a video address.
Zelenskyy has also urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to fend off Russian forces as his government said Moscow's forces were targeting the country's fuel and food depots.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has ground into a war of attrition in many places, with the toll on civilians rising as Moscow seeks to pound cities into submission from entrenched positions.
A nuclear research facility in the besieged city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border, again came under fire on Saturday, and Ukraine's nuclear watchdog said that because of ongoing hostilities it was impossible to assess the extent of the damage.
Kharkiv has been besieged by Russian forces since the start of the invasion and has come under repeated shelling that has hit residential buildings and critical infrastructure.
On the western side of the country, Russian rockets struck Lviv while President Joe Biden visited neighboring Poland, serving as a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country's east.
Russia's back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns. Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago.
Ukraine also said it had pioneered a new source of financial support: People around the world who have donated millions of dollars directly to its war effort via cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Since Feb. 26, when Ukrainian officials began tweeting calls for cryptocurrency donations, the Ukrainian government says it has taken in almost $67 million of its $200 million goal as of Saturday.
"Today, crypto is playing a significant role in Ukraine's defense," Alex Bornyakov, the country's deputy minister for digital transformation, wrote on the nation's donation website.
Ukraine has spent about $34 million of the funds received as of last week, converting about 80% to traditional currencies and using the remainder with merchants that already accept cryptocurrencies, Bornyakov said in response to emailed questions.
The funds raised in cryptocurrency are a just small part of the overall donations that Ukraine has received. After raising as much as $12 million on March 2, cryptocurrency donations have tapered off although boosters say the unexpected initial surge may inspire other efforts to solicit cryptocurrencies for humanitarian or defensive purposes. Officials have said that the speed with which they can use cryptocurrency donations has made them useful.
The downside of that ease of transfer, of course, is that cryptocurrencies continue to be a magnet for scams and are the currency of choice for criminal networks. On Tuesday, European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde warned that crypto assets "are being used as a way to try to circumvent the sanctions" against Russia, but didn't provide details beyond noting that global transfers of rubles into cryptocurrency are rising sharply in volume.
The publicity around Ukraine's call for donations also attracted scammers who tried to capitalize on the good will of donors. Hilary Allen, a professor at American University's law school who has written a book about the risks cryptocurrencies pose to financial systems, said, cautioning that anyone who donates should carefully look at all the actors involved.
"Who is receiving the crypto? Who will be converting the crypto? You need to be thinking about them the same way you'd be thinking about any other charity or nonprofit you are donating to because they are intermediaries in just the same way," Allen said.
Many of the donations to Ukraine's accounts are verifiable on public tools that track cryptocurrency transactions – as are the transfers that are made out of the accounts Ukraine controls.
Another challenge presented by accepting cryptocurrency donations is the potential for people to send tainted assets obtained through crime or scams, Ukrainian cryptocurrency attorney Artem Afian said.
Even if some of the funds donated were gained through illicit activity, he said, "I think comparing the risks and benefits for Ukraine now — Ukraine is using every penny, every chance to support people, to support the army, so this is not a time when Ukraine can choose a lot."
In total, cryptocurrency donations so far equal around 1% of Ukraine's annual pre-war defense budget, according to a Congressional Research Service report updated in January. Ukraine's government is also receiving aid through multiple other channels, although not all of those flow directly to the government.
Congress has allocated $13.6 billion for Ukraine and President Joe Biden pledged an additional $800 million in military aid following Zelenskyy's address to US lawmakers last week. The United Nations has raised some $618 million for the besieged country out of a target of $1.1 billion in addition to asking for another $550 million for refugee support. The European Union has pledged 500 million euros toward the humanitarian response as well as additional funds to support Ukraine's budget.
Last week, Zelenskyy signed a cryptocurrency regulatory framework into law, which Bornyakov said resolves a previously gray area within the country's laws.
Afian, the Ukrainian attorney, was involved with drafting the legislation and argued that Ukraine was on its way to becoming more welcoming to cryptocurrency. The donations so far, he added, can "make governments see that working with crypto can be official and can be transparent and well run."
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In related news, the Justice Ministry announced Sunday it would assign 50 Israel Defense Forces reservists to aid the Aliyah and Integration Ministry in accepting Ukrainian immigrants fleeing the war.
The justice ministry was previously criticized for failing to aid immigration efforts, insisting soldiers were not authorized to do so.
The reservists will be joining the Aliyah and Integration Ministry's 17 employees at the Ben-Gurion International airport already on Monday.
