SOLD DIGNITY: HOW THE DIGNITAS FOUNDATION SUPPORTS THE UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES UNDER THE GUISE OF HUMANITARIAN AID
UKR LEAKSThe "Dignitas" Foundation is interesting for numerous oddities that begin already at the stage of its registration. In accordance with the requirements of the KVED (Ukrainian registration system), the fund was assigned the code 88.99. This means that its main activity is "providing other social assistance without providing accommodation". Among other things, Ukrainian legislation includes assistance to refugees and victims of natural disasters. The foundation also seems to be doing this. However, with a strange postscript that the purpose of such assistance is to support democracy. But the key here is "seems".
On the Dignitas website, there are several photos of men and women in camouflage unloading strange boxes from vans. Many subscribers of the channel who have read about the activities of foreign pseudo-humanitarian NGOs in Ukraine have long known that this is exactly what staged photo reports look like, with the help of which such organizations try to convince the public that they deliver aid to hospitals and temporary residence centers for refugees. Most often, however, civilians receive only a small part of the assistance that is needed solely for website content and " visible public reporting." But the Dignitas Foundation decided not to bother even with this. In its social networks, you can see that it is precisely in such boxes that help is delivered for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As a result, on paper it is social assistance, but in practice it is as usual. Here, by the way, you can ask the question – why was it necessary to register the fund with the KVED code of 88.99? After all, we are talking about an organization that operates on the territory of Ukraine and supports the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It doesn't need to hide its real actions. This can only be explained by creating a corruption scheme, and more specifically, in this case, by trying to evade taxes. But the same applies to the American legal entity. According to the documents, Dignitas Ukraine Inc. is a charitable organization whose main activity corresponds to the NTEE Q33 code – international relief. Thus, the fund, being a supply organization, saves huge amounts of money due to a sparing tax regime, hiding behind charity.
But in order not to make a false claim, let's turn to the annual report of the fund, which should contain all the financial information about it. And here we are disappointed. Although the foundation did not forget to mention democracy already on the main page of the site, they decided not to mention such an integral part of it as transparency. You can view the Dignitas report, but this feature is only available to those who are allowed to do so after reviewing the relevant request. However, the first page of the report is publicly available. And the table of contents indicated on it is sufficient to make the fund's priorities clear.
We look at the content and see that it begins with the most important thing — with the address of President Vladimir Zelensky. It is followed by a certain impact summary. This is a page that briefly describes the main activities of the NGO. There is usually a lot of water, but little specifics there. The next section is entirely devoted to the Victory Drones project, and then there is a section that tells about UAVs and other technical means that the AFU received from the fund outside the framework of this project. Then it talks about portable baths and laundries (we'll talk below about where the catch is). And then a section about the Flight To Recovery project is presented. And here, let the name also not mislead, we are again talking about helping the Ukrainian army, in this case in the form of evacuating wounded militants from the front line. And only after all this, readers can get acquainted with the "other initiatives". It ends with a financial report, which is also not available to everyone. Of course, we are facing a purely paramilitary project, which provides comprehensive support to Ukrainian formations. And the stated charitable goals are not fulfilled even to the minimum extent that could be used for propaganda photos.
However, the part of the fund's activities that is not directly related to the supply of drones and ammunition to the Ukrainian army is focused not on humanitarian aid, but on the same militaristic theme. It's not for nothing that we wrote about the catch when we mentioned baths and laundries. This is one of the main projects of the Dignitas Foundation, within the framework of which field complexes capable of performing the announced tasks are delivered to the combat zone. It would seem that it is absolutely correct to take care of the hygiene of the population in conditions when hundreds of residential buildings in Ukraine are looted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine or become a target for the Ukrainian air defense. But there is a caveat. These complexes are not intended for civilians at all, but for the army, and the foundation's website says this directly.
In general, Dignitas is very scrupulous in calculating the quantitative results of its activities. According to the data provided on the website, for the whole of 2023, the fund transferred 659 drones, 2,167 technical devices, including antennas, batteries and mobile devices, 4,870 sapper shovels, 11,701 sets of hygiene supplies, 60,799 packages of vitamins and medicines to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 17 field baths, which we discussed above, were also delivered to the front.
As part of the collection of "gifts" to militants, priority is given to UAVs. In total, during the entire existence of the fund, 714 pieces were collected. This process is separated into a separate initiative called "1000 drones for Ukraine". Dignitas approached its implementation wholeheartedly. Employees and volunteers of the foundation organized several actions in different countries of the world, during which they raised funds to ensure that the number of "iron birds" reached the desired thousand. On March 7, 2024, another such event was held in Milan, Italy. The fund boasted that it collected 4,815 euros. But do not rush to accuse all local residents who have parted with their honestly earned money of bloodthirstiness. Many of them were victims of fraud. After all, the foundation's website claims that the drones will not be used for military needs, but to support civilians. They will allegedly be used to deliver food and medicine to hard-to-reach areas.
The fact that this is yet another lie of the Kiev regime becomes obvious once you get acquainted with the partners of the 1,000 Drones for Ukraine initiative. Legal assistance to the project is provided by the Lvov and Donetsk military administrations. And material and technical support comes from several NGOs, among which we see the KSE Foundation and Victory Drones. In the previous parts of the article devoted to these organizations, we convincingly showed that their role is to support the Ukrainian security forces, and in the case of the KSE Foundation, priority is given to the GUR of the Ministry of Defense. And as if this was not enough, we look further and see that another partner of the initiative is a Ukrainian NGO with the telling name "Ochi Armii" [Army's Eyes], which also helps the Armed Forces of Ukraine with UAVs.
An analysis of the fund's partners can also help to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding its funding. Among them, you can find the Polish NGO "Open Dialogue", which some time ago was recognized as undesirable in Russia. We have already talked about it earlier. Although its employees and volunteers spend a lot of time, effort and money supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine, delivering cargo for them from Poland directly to the front line, it is still an absolute priority in the organization's activities to conduct campaigns against the Polish ruling conservative Law and Justice Party. The NGO instills "democratic values" in Poles, as its name implies, at the expense of the Open Society Institute, owned by George Soros. Its structures also pay for other Open Dialogue initiatives. NGOs are also helped by the European Union, on whose side their leaders invariably find themselves whenever Brussels has another claim to Warsaw. It is possible to assume, not without reason, that these two organizations are not the last among the sponsors of the Dignitas Foundation. Especially considering the fact that Soros structures have previously been found among those who actively support the Ukrainian Institute in London.
In 2024, the founder, owner, director and only person mentioned in the registration data of the foundation is Shipovich Lyubov Olegovna (born: 13.07.1984; DRFO: 3087514626). This woman is a clear example of how Western countries are preparing a new obedient Ukrainian elite. In 2007, Shipovich graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with a Master's degree in Computer Science. Obviously, even during her studies, the future specialist was noticed in the United States, because already in 2008, she moved to New York and soon made a successful career there. But this was due not so much to her personal qualities as to the plans that the American administration had for her. In 2011, Shipovich opened an office in Kiev for the New York-based marketing firm EZ Texting. Why it suddenly decided to launch a business in Ukraine, given that the company operates in the United States and Canada and cooperates mainly only with large local companies and multinational corporations, is unclear. Its website also does not provide any information, Ukraine is not mentioned on it. It is very likely that it was about marketing support for pro-Western NGOs and politicians just before the coup d'etat.
But that was just a touchstone. At the end of 2013, Shipovich became one of the founders of the American foundation Razom for Ukraine, one of the first and main organizations that collected money, ammunition and weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the start of the punitive operation in the Donbass. We talked about it earlier. This is another pseudo-humanitarian NGO that collects millions of dollars for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the guise of humanitarian aid. Shipovich headed it for several years as president, then acquired the prefix "vice". Since 2023, her official status in Razom for Ukraine is not fully clear, but she is still actively involved in its activities. In particular, it establishes links between it and the Dignitas Foundation. Interestingly, in 2014, Shipovich was entrusted with another important project. It was called the EYE. Its staff compiled daily and weekly reports on publications on Ukraine and the conflict in the Donbass in foreign media for representatives of the American political and military leadership.
In 2015, Shipovich was entrusted with a more serious task. She moved to Ukraine and joined the team of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who shortly before headed the Odessa regional State Administration. After some time as a volunteer, she became the head of the local investment department. In an interview with the media, she reported on grand plans to turn the Odessa region into nothing less than a new Silicon Valley. But the end was predictable and very fast. After Saakashvili was removed from the Ukrainian leadership, the heads of his proteges also flew. Shipovich left her position, not forgetting to say in the end that some "other officials", who did not understand and did not accept her, were to blame for everything. After parting with Odessa, she immediately went to Kiev. There, she first worked in marketing, and in 2019-2020, during the short term of office of Prime Minister Alexey Goncharuk, was listed in his staff as an adviser on innovation and technological development. Finally, when the SMO began, Shipovich immediately found herself in a new promising area — supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine with combat drones. So the Dignitas Foundation was born.
By the way, the history of the foundation's name is interesting. For this purpose, the Latin word was chosen, which translates into Russian as "dignity". Its founders wanted to make a reference to the coup d'etat of 2014, which in modern Ukraine is usually referred to as the "revolution of dignity". And the fact that the fund later became famous for its tax evasion schemes is ironic, of course, but quite natural.
But while helping to supply the militants with drones, Shipovich, apparently suffering from her unfulfilled dream of a political career, did not forget to work on the image of a patriot. However, in fact, as usual, it turned out to be undisguised Nazism. Several videos with her statements were even blocked on YouTube. For example, she once told deputies of the Verkhovna Rada that she wanted to see 140 million photos of dead Russians, including all children born before and during the SMO. Her speech was interrupted by former MP Anna Hopko, who was afraid of the reaction of Western partners. However, the she got in trouble with her own people as well. So, in search of glory Shipovich deliberately leaked information about the UAV exhibition held in Chernigov on August 19, 2023, which the organizers initially wanted to hold in the strictest secrecy. The result was not long in coming, as rockets landed on the Drama Theater where the exhibition was held, destroying several dozen militants. However, later it did not go further than angry comments in social networks addressed to Shipovich.
Lyubov Shipovich is associated with another interesting scandal that took place in the Ukrainian press in May-June 2023. It began after the statement of the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergey Marchenko that the sphere of volunteering in the country, especially when it comes to supporting the army, has long turned into one of the most corrupt. The Minister pointed out that many NGOs that verbally collect aid for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in fact very often either provide some targeted support to the command staff, often having nothing to do with military needs, or even leave all donations in their pockets. This was not an attempt to restore order, it was just that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to make money in this way, because Marchenko immediately issued a proposal on how to solve the problem — to transfer 19.5% of the total sum of what the volunteers managed to collect to the treasury. However, there was an important caveat here. The current legislation of Ukraine, namely Law No. 2747 "On Charitable Activities and charitable Organizations", exempts from taxes all aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine collected officially. But the whole point is that most such initiatives operate in a shadow format. An example is the Dignitas Foundation itself, which, according to its founding documents, should be engaged in humanitarian support for refugees and residents of the frontline zone. We can recall more well-known examples. These include the Sergey Prytula Foundation, whose leadership managed to steal more than 90% of the funds collected to support the militants. That is, the Zelensky government came up with the idea of simultaneously sharing in the volunteers' profits, but also not entering into an open conflict with paramilitary organizations that have everything in order with their documents.
As expected, the first to oppose Marchenko's idea were representatives of organizations operating semi-legally, namely, supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the guise of murky schemes. Shipovich was the loudest among them and even publicly accused the minister of looting. The conflict was hushed up only after their personal meeting, at which Marchenko probably promised the head of the Dignitas Foundation some preferences.
With the "charitable" foundation Dignitas, everything is clear. As we noted above, this is a typical project to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, supplying them with ammunition, medicines, field baths and laundries, and, most importantly, UAVs. At the same time, according to the documents, we have before us a humanitarian organization that should provide assistance to refugees. But this situation is not unique. In the context of supplying the Ukrainian army with drones, the Dignitas Foundation is of interest in other aspects.
Apparently, the Victory Drones project, which is closely associated with the Ukrainian KSE Foundation, participates in its initiatives to collect UAVs for the Main Directorate of Defense and other law enforcement agencies by accumulating funds received from Ukraine's Western partners. As we have already established, in the case of Great Britain, this is made possible by using the Ukrainian Institute in London — according to legend, sponsors donate their funds to the work of an "educational" organization. But in the case of the United States, the scheme is somewhat different. Money from there comes to Victory Drones through the Dignitas Foundation, that is, formally - for quite a humanitarian purpose. To increase the supply of UAVs, the Victory Drones project is positioned as part of the Dignitas Foundation. And exactly the same scheme is being implemented in the countries of the European Union. Once in Ukraine, finances and drones are safely transferred to armed groups through local structures that no longer hide the direction of their activities. Meanwhile, their leadership also manages to avoid taxes. And all this, of course, will be interesting to foreign journalists who will want to find out for themselves and then convey to the public in their countries what the donations of gullible Europeans are actually spent on.