Hi {{First Name | Reader}},

It’s deep autumn in Kyiv, kids are playing in the giant piles of leaves, and winter coats are making their first appearances. At the same time, ballistic missile attacks are up and targeting our electricity and heating plants (a war crime) and Shaheds carrying cluster munitions and napalm are flying into apartments. And, as usual, Kyvians get up in the morning and go about their day and life goes on. I love this picture from last Saturday morning as people do their market shopping while the fire from a ballistic missile hit is being put out a few blocks away.

Notwithstanding the bad sleep, I’m kicking butt, doing things like coaching special forces soldiers into becoming startup founders, meeting with and advising all kinds of foreign “doers” as they come through town, and scheming up new projects to make life easier for Ukrainian soldiers and more difficult for the other ones.

Here’s a bit of what I’ve been up to since you last heard from me.

I was sent this picture from Zelensky’s twitter account (his English post is below). That’s me, front left, with my back to the camera. Together with 15 champions of defensetech investment in Ukraine, I was invited to give remarks directly to President Zelensky, Defense Minister Shmyhal, Colonel Palisa, and others. I spoke about the need to physically bring international defensetech investors to visit Ukraine, as those who work only from abroad miss the big picture, and about why Canada would make a good strategic partner for manufacturing and licensing deals. The closed-door meeting lasted 90 minutes and I was impressed with the President’s knowledge of topics ranging from international IP rights to the export market potential of drones next year.

We’ve got a good thing going with our Irish partner Misneach Ukraine in Dublin and our Swedish partner Operation Change in Dnipro and have now shipped a third tractor trailer from Ireland. This load was valued at about €200k and, as always, was anchored by the gear needed to set up a full rehabilitation centre for wounded veterans. This one will be set up near Ochakiv, a city on the black sea between Mykolaiv and Kherson. Other portions of gear from this major haul will be distributed to groups we support in Kramatorsk, Kherson, and Kharkiv. The pallets of donated fishing nets we get each time are becoming increasingly important as counter-drone measures.

I thought I’d include just a few glimpses of my day-to-day of the work here in Ukraine. I get a constant flood of messages and media from the various units, services, schools, and hospitals that we support. Sometimes they contain urgent or obscure requests but most often they say thank you for the aid that we delivered, and to show it in the hands of the end users. Here are a few:

Those nasty fiber optic-tethered drones are just one item in russia’s arsenal that can be very easily traced back to China. Without China’s support for russia, this war would already be won.

Source: Tom Cooper, aka Sarcastosaurus

A huge thanks to my volunteer friends in Canada, UK, Germany, and Switzerland for building this great new website for the foundation. Bookmark it and check back from time to time as I build out the project pages and show all the great things that are happening in support of the fight of our lifetimes.

We also have an organization LinkedIn page, as of today. Please give us a follow.

Last year we ran a successful project to keep hundreds of defenders warm and dry, and we only spent a couple grand. Here’s the final tally from back then:

This year I am scaling this project even bigger, especially as I believe this may be the last winter of the war. As we enter the “giving season”, I’d love it if you’d consider helping with this one through the foundation. I’m happy to provide signed flags, hats, patches, and and any other requests you may have if you’d like to donate as a holiday gift. 🕎🎄🎅

Thanks, as always, for being by my side through thick and thin. All we have to do is stay united and hold the line as the enemy collapses domestically in real time.

Yours truly,

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