rob.blackie
7th March 2022'[T]hank you sooooo much for your support.'
That's the message I got from one of our Ukrainian partners yesterday. And most days now I get a message like that from Ukraine.
Thank you very much for donating to our campaign to bring independent news into Russia. We've raised £30,000 so far - and we continue to fundraise to make sure we can get as many ads into Russia as possible.
Today I can update you on three important bits of campaign news.
1. We continue to be able to run ads into Russia. While bans happen constantly, we are increasingly confident that we can out-run Putin's censorship for quite a long time to come.
We keep innovating - and finding new ways to do the ads, with new messages and new tactics.
You can get a bit more detail in some of our media coverage - linked to in this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/robblackie_oo/status/1500836133948776457
Right now I can't say much more, without giving away our secrets, but when the campaign ends we'll reveal all.
2. We are building up our campaign to make sure that we can show more ads, and be more effective. That will mean we can keep our campaign running for as long as the war continues, even if that is many months.
To increase our effectiveness, we have been building links with some brilliant Ukrainian partners.
And on a related note, apologies to anybody waiting for a reply from me about the campaign - we've all been very busy in the last few days. I will get back to you soon.
3. We are shortly going to expand to covering Belarus too. We've consulted internally and with regional experts before taking this decision. Belarus is a key part of the invasion of Ukraine - so by undermining support for the war in Belarus we help, as well as likely reaching some Russian soldiers who are stationed there.
Thanks again for your brilliant support,
Rob.