FALSE: Donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine have dropped nearly to zero

Pro-Russian Telegram channels are spreading claims that donations to the Ukrainian army have dropped almost to zero. This is also accompanied by a statement that “almost no one is donating now, but everyone is stealing.”

However, this is false. Recent survey data, reports from major foundations, and donation statistics from banks show that the overall level of contributions remains high.

Since the post does not specify the time frame or the data sources on which the authors based their conclusion, we decided to analyze the most current available information about charitable giving and donations to the army from January to April 2025.

For example, over 1.3 billion UAH have already been donated to the “Come Back Alive” foundation since the beginning of 2025.  Also, in 2025, the largest number of donations in three years (602,000) was observed.

For accurate comparison, we matched donation income data for the foundation during the same period in previous years, from January to April. In 2024, a bit less was raised — 1.06 billion UAH, and in 2023, also about 1.2 billion UAH.

Speaking of annual statistics, in 2023, donations to “Come Back Alive” totalled 4.5 billion UAH, and in 2024, 4.4 billion UAH. In an interview with Ukrainian Radio on February 25, 2025, the foundation’s community manager Kateryna Halushka called the 100 million UAH difference “a certain dip“, but all this is far from the claim of “falling to zero“.

Also, in 2024, donations via Monobank for army needs reached 993 million euros — more than in 2022 and 2023 combined. The statistics include donations via group “jars” and collections by individuals, charitable foundations, and NGOs. Since the beginning of 2025, Monobank has already raised 141 million euros.

About 2 million people donate to “jars” each month, 15 times more than in the first months of the full-scale war. The number of transactions has also increased: by the end of 2024, it reached 8.8 million per month, compared to 1 million in 2023.

A Deloitte survey conducted from November 28 to December 11, 2024, and published in March 2025, is one of the most recent social studies on donations. According to it, 89% of Ukrainians donate to support the army, although this figure has dropped by 3 percentage points compared to 2023. Of these, 26% donate regularly.

Another survey, conducted by the sociological agency Info Sapiens commissioned by the Zagoriy Foundation, was published on December 3, 2024. According to it, in 2024, 73% of Ukrainians made financial donations, with 45% doing so in the last month of the year. Among the recipients, 68% of respondents named the military, and another 23% — charitable foundations (not exclusively military-related).

It is important to note that, as of now, there are no current surveys on army donations for 2025, since the year has only just begun. Therefore, more substantial conclusions about the current donation situation can be made later.

It should also be noted that references to “insider” information without any evidence cannot be considered a reliable source. Moreover, even before the full-scale invasion, the Security Service of Ukraine reported the involvement of the “Legitimnyi” channel in a Russian agent network that spreads demoralizing narratives and destabilizes the situation in Ukraine. We have previously debunked fakes from this Telegram channel.