Mark Hamill Says He's Helped Send 500 Drones to Ukraine

He's helping Zelensky in fight against 'evil empire'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 21, 2022 2:16 PM CDT
Mark Hamill Says He's Helped Send 500 Drones to Ukraine
In this 2019 photo, Mark Hamill arrives at the world premiere of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in Los Angeles.   (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame has been helping raise funds to help Ukraine in its fight against what he calls the "evil empire." Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, has become Mark Dronebuyer: In an interview with Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg Radio Thursday, he said the Army of Drones project has received more than 500 drones since he became an ambassador for the program last month. "Ukraine needs drones. They define war outcomes, they protect their land, their people, they monitor the border, they’re eyes in the sky," Hamill said. "I was really shocked because they give me these updates at least two or three times a week about what’s going on and they said they’ve received over 500 drones since I started this."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that Hamill had joined the project, which is part of the United24 fundraising initiative, the Hill reports. Other celebrities involved include Barbra Streisand and the band Imagine Dragons. Hamill said last month that he was honored when Zelensky invited him to become an ambassador for the project. "Right now is the best time for everyone to come together and help Ukraine stand up in this war with the evil empire," he said in a statement.

Hamill told the New York Daily News this week that he's not used to being contacted by world leaders and he was "sort of in a state of shock" after Zelensky's administration reached out. In a BBC interview last month, he said the Ukrainian leader brought up Star Wars when they spoke. "I mean, Star Wars was always a fairytale for children and fairytales are morality tales of good versus evil, where good is clearly defined, evil is clearly defined, and it’s not hard to extrapolate an evil empire with Russia invading a sovereign nation," Hamill said. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)

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