"5 TikTok Dances to Help Ukraine" Is Fake, but Here Are Other Ways to Help
Published March 10 2022, 10:53 a.m. ET
As people in the U.S. and around the world remain gripped by the war in Ukraine, many are wondering what steps they can take to help Ukrainians who are resisting the Russian invasion, or the many refugees who have already poured out of the country into neighboring regions. One trend on TikTok suggests that dancing may help, but some users are wondering whether those dances actually do anything.
Is "5 dances to help Ukraine" fake?
An article was recently circulating online suggesting that if you film yourself doing certain dances on TikTok, those dances "just might scare Putin into submission." Among the dances you're reportedly supposed to do are "Savage Love," "Cannibal," and "I'm Savage."
After the article was posted, it faced a pretty immediate backlash from those online who correctly argued that dancing was highly unlikely to stop Vladimir Putin.
“I just laughed out loud at this because what do they mean they made up dances to help Ukraine fight? This is not a dance battle," one user wrote on Twitter.
“I like how it’s ‘to help Ukraine fight Russia’ as if Ukraine soldiers are hooked up to a machine powered only by TikTok dances," another user added.
The claim that these dances could help Ukraine was pretty ludicrous on its face, and these users clearly recognized that.
Here are some other steps you can take to help Ukraine.
If you're actually interested in helping Ukrainians who have been impacted by the war, there are a number of ways you can make an impact. If you're looking to help Ukrainian refugees, you can donate money to the Polish Center for International Aid, Polish Humanitarian Action, the Polish Association for Legal Intervention for refugee rights, HIAS, and their Ukrainian partner R2P.
If you'd like to help the Ukrainian military as it resists Russia's invasion, you can donate to them directly and can even do so using cryptocurrency. Here's the best way to donate directly to the Ukrainian military. If you want to donate to a cause that's a little less violent, you can send money to groups that are providing medical assistance in Ukraine, like Médecins Sans Frontières or the Ukrainian Red Cross.
There are also more unusual causes benefiting Ukraine.
In addition to these conventional donations that provide direct aid, there are also some more unusual ways you can contribute to the Ukrainian cause. A massive video game bundle is being sold through itch.io, and the proceeds from that sale will benefit the International Medical Corps and the Voices of Children support organization. You can buy the bundle for as little as $10, but those who are selling it encourage people to donate more if they can.
Other people are booking up Ukrainian Airbnbs even though they have no intention of traveling to the country. They're doing this because it's a way to get money to people on the ground and ensure that they have a steady income stream even as their entire country faces massive upheaval.
