The brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine impacted not only Ukrainians. On the day when Russia started the war, the value of the crypto market dropped by $200 billion in 24 hours.
Slavik Fokin, a 37-year-old Ukrainian, noticed that much later though. He has worked in the blockchain and crypto space since 2017. Currently, he is the CEO of Innolope, an incubator and consultancy that is focused on helping startups find the most efficient business models based on blockchain technology and launch their tokens. He is also an advisor of several blockchain companies, including Animoca-backed, move-to-earn startup Health Hero and AAA-class play-to-earn game Exverse.
Having a Ukrainian passport, during the last five years, Slavik lived a digital nomad lifestyle. He moved around Ukraine, California, Germany, Dubai, France, Bali, and other locations, spending several months per year here and there.
On February 24, when Russia started bombing Ukraine, Slavik Fokin happened to be in Kyiv. He had planned a business trip to Germany on February 27, but it was not meant to happen. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, martial law was introduced in the country. Hundreds of thousands of refugees flooded the western border of the country attempting to flee from the war, but it was never an option for Slavik or the millions of other Ukrainian men for one simple reason: the male population of Ukraine between the ages of 18 to 60 years old is not allowed to leave the country when martial law is in place.
“In March, Soladefy, an IDO launchpad where I’m an advisor, took part in the AIBC event in Dubai. And they told me, ‘Come to Dubai, we’re pitching here, and we need you.’ The only thing I could respond, ‘I’d love to, guys; I just can’t,’” Slavik explained.
To fill the ranks of the Ukrainian military was also not an option because, since the beginning of the war, the number of volunteers who were willing to fight the Russian aggression surpassed the number of guns available. During the first several weeks, Slavik spent all his time volunteering.
On the one hand, there was a huge demand for the military as well as medical equipment for newly formed military units, including body armor, drones, and tourniquets. Finding suppliers around the world, coordinating the delivery, and distributing among military units were needed. Needless to say, the fundraising to purchase wholesale batches of goods was also needed. On the other hand, Slavik was driving across Kyiv through numerous block posts to distribute food packages to elderly people who stayed in the Ukrainian capital.
During the first days of the war, the shelves of grocery stores and supermarkets were almost empty because of problems with logistics. What was more, banks were closed, so people often couldn’t cash out their funds to purchase food and were on the verge of hunger.
“That’s funny; in January I got a new car, Jeep Grand Cherokee. And I felt a little uncertain about it. ‘This car is so big; why do I need such a big car?’ When the war started, that car turned out to be truly useful,” Slavik recollected.
While volunteering full time for several weeks, Slavik realized that he should have gotten back to his work. The war was not supposed to end in the nearest future, and it was important to support the economy of Ukraine to avoid its collapse.
Working from home and having multiple zoom calls per day was nothing new after two years of the pandemic. What was different was that sometimes the call was interrupted by an air raid alarm, which happened in Kyiv up to a dozen times per day. However, very soon, Slavik got used to their sound, to the extent that he didn’t pay attention to it anymore.
“I never thought it was possible to get used to war. It appears that it’s possible,” Slavik said and sighed.
There are not a lot of places where you can spend money during the war, so most of Slavik’s income these days is spent on donations to local volunteers and organizations that finance defense initiatives. By the way, the largest organization that provides support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Comeback Alive, started accepting donations in crypto shortly after the beginning of the war.
Recently Slavik started F∄AR, an NFT collection and a multidisciplinary project dedicated to fears. The project is inspired by the latest events in Ukraine and will be implemented in different media, including a generative NFT collection, an animation movie, a book, and a game. Being an art project, at the same time, it’s capable of raising funds that can be used for supporting Ukraine’s resistance.
With the war still going on, Ukrainians keep on fighting it not only with weapons but with any means available to them.
About the Author
Slavik Fokin dedicated 15 years to developing business and marketing solutions for global celebrity brands like Microsoft, HP, UNICEF. During the last 5 years, he’s been focusing on helping startups to find the most efficient business models based on blockchain technology and launch their tokens. https://linkedin.com/in/slavikfokin
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