Here’s a Fun Way for You to Stick It to Putin

Drones for Ukraine has a unique fundraising tool: Donate $1,000 or more to their effort to procure modern drones to defend against the Russian invasion, get a genuine piece of aircraft skin from a downed Russian jet fighter.

“Have you always wanted a Su-34 ‘Fullback’ strike fighter?” the Twitter pitch goes. “But $50M is a little bit pricey?”

As a matter of fact, $50 million is a little pricey. I’ve got two boys, and you should see our monthly food bill.

But: “Just donate $1000+ to support Ukrainian army and we’ll send you this tag recycled from a downed Russian plane (it’s literally a piece of it with little engraving).”

“Made in Russia, Recycled in Ukraine” is a pretty gutsy tagline, too.

“Your donations will help us supply the defenders in Ukraine with modern drones and equipment to counter the invasion,” according to the website. So your donation in exchange for a piece of a shot-down Russian jet might just help Ukraine shoot down another one.

The Su-34 is Russia’s top-of-the-line fighter/bomber, a modernized and (very) upgraded strike version of the Su-27 Flanker. The Russian Air Force (VVS) took delivery of the first Flankers from Sukhoi in 2006, and they’ve seen combat in Syria, (probably) Georgia, and (of course) Ukraine.

The two-seat, twin-engine jet is roughly equivalent to an American F-15E Strike Eagle and is generally considered one of the more capable fourth-generation fighters.

Only 129 Fullbacks are known to have been built for the VVS, seven of which are believed to have been shot down or otherwise lost in Ukraine.

That makes these bits of aircraft skin pretty rare birds, if you’ll pardon the pun.

I understand we have some Russia fans in this country, but if strongman Vladimir Putin doesn’t like having his strike fighters shot down, he could stop tasking them against neighboring countries.

Just sayin’.

If you’re a collector of military items, particularly items that have seen combat, you can check out the fundraiser right here.

Mostly what fascinated me about this story is the creativity behind the fundraising drive.

We all saw what happened to Canada’s Freedom Convoy earlier this year. GoFundMe, which supposedly exists to help people raise money for their causes, went all partisan (again) and (grudgingly) returned donated money to the donors, rather than forward it to the truckers as intended.

Undaunted, the truckers turned to Bitcoin.

We’ve come a long way from holding bake sales to support our causes.

But there’s more than just unusual fundraising going on in our digitally networked age.

Remember Barack Obama’s Operation Choke Point? Starting in 2013, our so-called Department of Justice leaned on banks to try and get them to stop facilitating perfectly legal transactions that might not please The Lightbringer.

They tried to stop banks from processing ammo sales, firearms purchases, tobacco sales, pharmaceuticals … a whole list of items Obama wanted verboten.

The fascistic program was ended in the first year of Donald Trump’s (first?) term, and the FDIC was forced to settle multiple lawsuits

(PJ Media was all over that story, BTW. I love working here.)

That kind of thing is still going on, by the way. Disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tried something similar in 2018.

It isn’t much different from the way social media treats the creation and sharing of conservative, pro-Constitution, pro-liberty viewpoints. Take something perfectly legal and legitimate like expressing your support for this candidate or your disdain for their opponent, and the Digital Powers That Be will hound you out of the virtual public square — or worse.

PJ Media and, our parent site Townhall, correctly predicted just how bad the situation would get nearly three years ago. That’s when we launched our VIP and VIP Gold subscriber services. When we enjoy your direct support, those digital masters can’t treat us — or our readers — as serfs on their estate.

I can’t promise you anything as cool as snipped-off bits of shot-down fighter jets. I can promise you uninterruptible access to reporting, commentary, podcasts, and video live chats from my favorite stable writers, anywhere. Not just here at PJ, but at all six Townhall websites.

If that’s something you’d like to become a part of, we’d love to have your support. You can become a part of the action here, and use promo code RUSSIA for a lovely 25% discount.