As Ukraine continues to courageously resist Russian invasion, individuals, organizations, and corporations with power around the world are publicly condemning Russia and Putin. Ukrainian men and boys of all ages are picking up arms to fight against Russian aggression, a true show of national pride and strength. Many nations are unable or unwilling to offer Ukraine direct military support in fear that it may launch a third world war. This isn’t stopping powerful individuals and corporations with unique abilities and power from helping, however. Some are offering assistance to Ukraine, others are doing everything in their power to drag Russia down. Here are a few inspiring stories of people stepping up to one of the world’s greatest superpowers, and doing what they can to assist a nation in need.
Elon Musk, currently the richest man in the world, and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is doing his part to help out Ukraine. SpaceX, founded in 2002 by Musk has been making great advancements in space exploration, travel, and the internet over the course of the last 20 years. Elon Musk has been working on Starlink, an internet service provides through thousands of satellites encircling the globe, since 2015, and although Starlink Internet will be publicly and commercially available by the end of the year, Musk has activated satellites over Ukraine, providing internet for the people during large outages caused by the invasion.
On the offensive side, vigilante hacker group Anonymous has declared war on the Russian government, and have poured days of effort into disabling vital websites and online functions. After a post on Twitter, the group has been active and hard at work launching cyber attack after cyber attack against the aggressors. Their impact so far has been impressive, from annoying jabs and blockages, to entire government websites being hacked. Last week, Anonymous claimed to have taken down multiple Russian sites including the official Kremlin site. The activists have also hacked into state television channels and broadcasted the Ukrainian flag and national anthem. More recently, they have broadcasted videos of the atrocious attacks in Ukraine, something the Russian government has been intentional about keeping in the dark, on these same Russian TV channels.
Finally, businesses have been rapidly pulling out of Russia. McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca Cola, and PepsiCo have all suspended business in Russia as of March 8th. McDonalds will continue to pay employees even though the restaurants are closed.
Chip Kanszinski, the McDonald’s chief executive, said, “Our values mean we cannot ignore the needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine.” This sentiment is being expressed by many other companies making the decision to suspend business in the country.
All in all, it has been incredibly inspiring to see efforts put up to hinder the invasion of Ukraine and drag down the Russian government.
