More than 400 used bulletproof vests donated by US police forces to be sent to Ukraine were stolen from a New York warehouse on Wednesday, according to police.
Since the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainian officials have sought supplies from abroad, including everything from food rations and medical equipment to MiG fighter jets used by neighboring countries. While some of these supplies have been bought by the Ukrainian authorities, including through the use of a state-directed cryptocurrency fund, others have simply been donated.
According to Coindesk, Ukraine’s crypto donation fund operated by the Ministry of Digital Transformation, its de facto crypto ministry, has received $60 million and Ukraine’s national bank has received another $280 million in fiat currency donations.
In the US, Ukrainian-American nonprofits have helped organize these efforts, including the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, who received some 450 bulletproof vests from New York City metro area police departments.
The vests had been decommissioned, but according to the police officials who donated them, they are still effective at protecting those who wear them. They were intended to go to medics and humanitarian workers, not to soldiers or mercenaries fighting Russian forces.
However, the vests never got to Ukraine. According to the New York Police Department, the vests were stolen from a Manhattan warehouse on Wednesday morning.
Surveillance video from a nearby shop revealed three different vans pulling up to the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America building over the course of three hours, and several people getting out of the vans and loading them up with box after box of donated vests before driving off.
NYPD did not indicate whether they had a lead on the owners of the vans or the perpetrators of the crime.
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