CHERKASY
“In the Spirit of the Winter War from Finland”, translated as “Finland, in the spirit of the winter war”.
That’s what it says on the 155 millimeter fragmentation grenade that Ukrainian soldiers launched on the eastern front in January towards Russian positions. The Finnish subscriber paid 200 dollars for this, or more than 180 euros.
The message was conveyed by the Ukrainian Sign my rocket project, which raises money for the country’s army through its activities. In practice, anyone can buy a service from the project’s website, where the message the buyer wants is recorded in the ammunition used by Ukrainian soldiers.
Ammunition messages have been bought by people from all over the world. Finns stand out from the crowd in a striking way, says the leader of the project.
– Finns are almost the only donors who receive revenge messages, says the coordinator Anton Sokolenko To .
visited the project’s office in the city of Cherkasy in central Ukraine and went through the messages sent to the Sign my rocket online service.
Among them, messages that refer to the wars fought by Finland against the Soviet Union during the Second World War clearly stand out as a single group.
In this story, publishes a few examples of bullet messages.
For example, the image below directly refers to the winter war. The message can be freely translated into Finnish:
“We will never forget (the year) 1939”.
In many of the pictures seen by , the exact date and location have been mentioned.
The date 20.1.1940 and the city Tampere are recorded in the picture below. The message probably refers to the heavy bombing of the city, when the Soviet Union 32 planes bombed (you switch to another service) Pispala, Petsamo and Finlayson areas in the city.
The next picture, on the other hand, mentions Loka, located in Sodankylä, and the date July 14, 1944. At that time, a Russian partisan unit attacked the village and killed 21 civilians, 20 of whom were women and children.
It was the most devastating partisan attack on civilians during the Continuation War.
Some of the messages also discuss Finland’s territorial cessions to the Soviet Union.
In the next picture there is a mention of Sortavala, located north of Lake Laatoka. Finland had to hand over the city to the Soviet Union first after the Winter War and later in the Moscow Armistice that ended the Continuation War in 1944 as part of the ceded Karelia.
The names of Finnish people and the dates of the winter or continuation war are also recorded in several messages. The messages probably refer to the date of death of the person who fell in the war.
In the picture, the name is blurred to protect private information.
Most of the messages sent by Finns are in Finnish, and there are many others in English.
Quotations can also be seen in a few Finns’ messages Reino Palmroth lyrics from the wartime uplifting song Silmien vallii. Some have a direct quote from the song, others have adapted the song’s words.
“There’s a wrinkle between the eyes, yes, it’s boring”
“Between the eyes, T: Mannerheim”.
In addition to messages related to the winter and continuation war, messages in Finnish take a position on the security political situation or wish greetings to the President of Russia to Vladimir Putin. Some of the messages also use profanity and curse words.
Based on the messages seen by , Finns use harsher language in their messages than citizens of other countries. This is also confirmed by Anton Sokolenko, the coordinator of the Sign my rocket project.
– Mostly personal greetings or something funny comes from the rest.
Will there be similar messages from other countries that suffered from the actions of the Soviet Union during World War II or the Cold War?
– No. For example, relatively few donations come from the Baltic countries anyway, Sokolenko answers.
The Sign my Rocket project is part of the activities of the Cherkasy Ukrainian Army Support Organization. The organization was originally founded already in 2014, when Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula belonging to Ukraine and started hostilities in the eastern part of the country.
Websites for buying ammunition messages opened last spring.
According to Sokolenko, 600–700 orders have come from Finland by the beginning of January. A total of about 140,000 euros has been collected for the project from Finns’ messages.
There were two spikes in Finns’ donations, says Sokolenko. The first came in October, when a member of parliament from the center of the city told about the project on the messaging service Twitter Mikko Kärnä.
The second spike was at the turn of the year, when the writer Sofi Oksanen and Member of Parliament for Basic Finns Jussi Halla-aho posted the writings they ordered.
Now Finland is firmly in second place in the number of donations after the United States.
“Ethical questions are of no interest”
With the collected donation funds, the support organization says it has purchased, among other things, vehicles, scopes, thermal cameras and radio telephones for use by the army.
On the day of ‘s visit, thirty reconnaissance drones, which will go to the eastern front, had just arrived at the organization’s premises.
Sokolenko says that he has come across feedback or media articles where the project is accused of immorality. He is also aware of the uproar in Finland at the turn of the year.
A critical discussion took place after Iltalehti’s columnist Oskari Onninen rated (you are moving to another service) the decision of well-known Finns to send grenade salutes to Russian soldiers.
– All I can say about ethics is that I don’t really care. If the money comes and if we can use it to buy necessities for the soldiers, I don’t care about ethical questions.
Sokolenko says he wants to remind critics that Ukraine is defending itself against a fierce Russian attack. He would leave the moral considerations to the donors.
– They [tilaajat] knowing full well that the weapons they signed kill people. Especially when ordering an inscription for Excalibur, which has a hit accuracy of four meters.
However, according to Sokolenko, most of the negative feedback comes from pro-Russian users.
– However, a few times I have received inquiries from Russia and Belarus. People inquired about how to send money without being able to trace the donation back home. Cryptocurrency is the solution, Sokolenko smiles.
You can discuss the topic until Monday, January 28 at 11 p.m.