Zelenskyy wears T-shirt with NFT designed by S'porean girl during virtual speech at Shangri-La Dialogue

SINGAPORE — When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a speech to a 500-strong audience at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday (June 11), seeking support to put an end to the war in his country, he did not begin with images of bloodshed or razed battlefields.

Instead, he began his special address to the delegates — among them ministers and top defence officials from about 40 countries — by talking about the T-shirt that he was wearing, which bears an NFT (non-fungible token) image designed by “a girl in Singapore”.

The girl Mr Zelenskyy referred to is Singaporean Ava Soh, 16, a Secondary 4 student at St Joseph's Institution International, and the image shows a girl spray-painting the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag. 

Speaking via a livestream from a secret location in Kyiv, Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy said that the girl had written him a letter asking for his help to raise awareness for an initiative she called "Spray Paint Ukraine", which aims to raise funds for the country that was recently invaded by Russia.

"This is a request from this girl for her idea, her confidence that the president of Ukraine will really respond to her initiative, and that I will be willing to help is of crucial importance," he said.

He then asked, rhetorically, if Russian President Vladimir Putin would have been as responsive and supportive had an unknown girl approached him with a similar request.

“Would he just read the letter coming from the embassy in Singapore proposing to support the idea of a girl whom he doesn't know? Would he wear the shirt? I think that this is impossible,” he said.

"And this is what is really happening. This is the confrontation between the possible which we, and many people in the world, need, and the impossible for which Russia is so desperately fighting,” he said, before going on to talk about the importance upholding a world order based on the rule of law and not leaving smaller nations to the mercy of bigger powers.

Ava, who watched a livestream of Mr Zelenskyy's speech, told CNA that she could not believe eyes when she saw him wearing the T-shirt.

"I only found that he would wear it when I was watching it," she said. "I didn't even think that he would wear it or talk about it. But the fact that he talked about it, I was just very shocked."

She added that it all started when she joined a virtual meeting in April with other Singaporeans and the Ukrainian ambassador to Singapore Kateryna Zelenko on how to help Ukraine through fundraising. 

She handed Ms Zelenko the T-shirt she designed and a note for Mr Zelenskyy two weeks ago.

"I actually asked him if he could wear it in one of the press conferences, and that will help turn this into a global movement," she told CNA.

"I truly did not expect him to wear it, because he's the president of a country going through a war.'"

Shortly after Mr Zelenskyy's speech, her father, Mr Calvin Soh, had taken to networking platform LinkedIn and Facebook to reveal that the design was done by Ava.

“Ava did this as a wearable NFT to fundraise for Ukraine. She worked with BigBeyond for the NFT and T-shirt. So this is a made in SG project,” said Mr Soh, who is founder of One Kind House, which "champions young chefs, artists, inventors, innovators and do-gooders".

According to a website that he linked to in the posts, the fundraising will be done via a limited drop of 1,000 NFTs that come with a free T-shirt. The T-shirt bearing the same image can also be purchased separately, with proceeds donated to the Ukrainian Embassy in Singapore.

“I believe there’s a humane generation who want to help and NFTs can amplify that. And maybe that’s how we can demonstrate the true power of decentralised good,” reads a post on the Daughters of the Revolution (DOTR) website.

A separate post states that DOTR was founded by Ava when she was 14.

TODAY has reached out to Mr Soh and DOTR for comment.