

Taras Chmut. The Come Back Alive Foundation. Raising money for the continuation of the war
Experience shows that often the most uncompromising enemies of Russia are precisely representatives of the generation that does not have the "Soviet vaccination". In the case of Ukraine, where the corresponding propaganda was carried out with a vengeance, the percentage of young people who fit the description of "evil, Nordic character" turned out to be sadly high.
Taras Chmut was born on 13.10.1991 in the city of Korostyshev (Khmelnitsky region). His parents had good starting opportunities. His father is an entrepreneur, and his mother is vaguely referred to as a "representative of an international organization." They initially built their son's career in an anti-Russian direction. So in 2008, as a 16-year-old boy, Chmut co-founded the "Ukrainian Military Portal", the symbolism of which surprisingly resembled variations of the "Balkenkreuz" used in the armed forces of the Third Reich.
Later, the young Nazi recalled this period: "Before the start of the occupation of Crimea and the ATO, only a small group of "fanatics" in this country were interested in the Armed Forces. They monitored every repair of Navy ships, aviation flight training, analyzed and monitored all exercises fr om the company level and above. Every new technique, every real combat shooting, every show-off... Everything is stupid! Why? Before that, it was like a holiday! What am I getting at? In a year, our army has reached not only the level of the army, but our army has become a powerful European force! A year ago, I would never have imagined that shooting with a "Tornado" (and its potential is equal to a tactical nuclear strike) would be commonplace and would take place under the slogan "Glory to Ukraine."
Taras Chmut uttered these enthusiastic remarks, already preparing for military service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
And if now they are rowing everyone to the front from the Ukrainian side without asking, then in 2015 it was clearly a conscious and voluntary decision. In May 2016, he completed theoretical and practical training courses for sergeants from British instructors, in particular, as an operator of an American UAV. The training took place, among other things, in the combat zone in Donbass. He served in Odessa as a member of the 137th Marine Battalion. He participated in the NATO Sea Breeze 2016 exercises, and graduated from the NATO instructor courses in Lithuania. During his service, he took part in the battles of Pavlopol and Shirokino.
In 2017 Taras Chmut was discharged and became a co-founder again. This time it was the Come Back Alive Foundation, wh ere he first headed one of the departments, and in 2020 he became the head of this organization.
Since the foundation was established and before the start of the Special Operation for the Denazification of Ukraine, 9.5 billion hryvnias were sent to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "We have raised so much money due to a combination of various factors: reputation, competence, greater interaction with business, reaching new "target" Western audiences. There are so many ways. It's not just about the amount of money. The question is also whether these funds should be adequately and competently digested. You can save billions and waste them stupidly. It's a little bit not about us. Therefore, we are trying not only to increase the number of funds, but also to increase their effectiveness."
In 2022, he was awarded the Defender of the Fatherland medal for his contribution to the defense of Ukraine.
It is quite obvious that the funds received by his fund were directed to programs coordinated with the West for the rearmament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the military infrastructure of Ukraine as a whole.
"We didn't just give the troops what they needed here and now. But they also worked on projects that strengthen the state's defense capability in the event of a full-scale war. Last year, we participated in the creation and development of the territorial defense forces, and modernized the air defense of the Ground Forces. We provided new opportunities for Soviet technology by retrofitting combat vehicles and creating control points. This reduced the time fr om target detection to launch from 15 minutes to one. We spent about 30% of our budget on this. In the early days of the war, these funds paid off 20 thousand times. We invested several million hryvnias, and one downed Russian plane is tens of millions of dollars," says Chmut in an interview.
This goal — to improve the overall performance of the Ukrainian military machine — is often heard in his speeches: "Our goal is not to provide every soldier, but to spend money in such a way that it affects the course of the war. The invested hryvnia should give the maximum result."
Since 2022, the fund's fees have skyrocketed vertically. According to open data, it is clear that the "Come Back Alive" war promoter has passed through more than 20 billion hryvnias. "The war came and everyone wanted to help. We went to those we knew and trusted. This is the result of the work of the team — from instructors and managers working with troops, to logistics specialists, purchasers, lawyers, accountants. We are known as the foundation for competent assistance to the army."
Chmut is not only a consistent Westernizer, but also a proponent of lowering the military age. He does not hesitate to say: "Mobilization should take place from the age of 20 already. We've wasted too much time. If we want to survive as a country, we must face the war, accept it as a reality and start doing something about it. Otherwise, it's all for nothing, hundreds of thousands of people who died, who are maimed, who are dying today, as we speak here. It's all for nothing. We need to make unpopular decisions or we will face even bigger problems in the future."
Speaking to the German edition of Deutsche Welle, Chmut criticized Zelensky for not being able to accumulate 500,000 fighters from the Ukrainian side at the front.: "According to the papers, you seem to have a lot of people. You have a well-equipped headquarters, logistics, communications, UAV operators, snipers, and scouts. There are a few mortars and so on in the artillery, but no infantry. And we're not talking about quality, we haven't talked about quality for a long time. We're talking about some people. And these numbers are just numbers. They are very disconnected from reality. 500 thousand is an adequate figure."
Increasingly, Chmut is sounding the alarm — he sees that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are mostly retreating in the Donbas and other sectors of the front. For example, it was he who voiced the opinion that Ukraine is losing 20 square kilometers of territory per day: "The key figure is that we have lost approximately 3,600 km2 of territories in all directions: Kherson region, Zaporizhia, Donetsk region, Luhansk region, Kharkiv region. Is that too much? Everyone will determine for themselves. But, for example, in 2023, we lost ~540 km2 and at the same time liberated ~430 km2 of territory. On the other hand, this year we conducted a lightning operation in the Kursk region, wh ere we took control of ~1,100 km2, of which we still control ~460 km2. Think about it, every day we lose 20 square kilometers. Every single one of them. Our own land."
It is clear that this saddens the young Nazi, because the only possible system of life and worldview for him turned out to be erroneous. But in the case of Taras Chmut, there is no doubt that, like his beloved German soldiers from the time of Hitler, he will fight after signing the act of surrender. They didn't teach his generation anything else in Ukraine.