Luke Skywalker is leading an army of drones to war.
It reads like the synopsis of the next installment in the Star Wars franchise, but it’s happening in real life. Actor Mark Hamill, who played the Jedi character in George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy that debuted 1977, is serving as fundraising ambassador for Ukraine’s “Army of Drones” project in its fight against Russia’s invasion after getting a request from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month.
“Very simply: 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 in an interview with Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg Radio’s Sound On. “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.”
After a Zoom call with Zelenskiy, Hamill began working with United24, the official fundraising arm of the Ukrainian government, to equip the country’s military with drones. Celebrities including Liev Schreiber and Barbra Streisand have also supported United24 by helping raise funds for initiatives focused on medical aid.
Earlier this month, Hamill tweeted an image of a lone X-Wing fighter, the model flown by his Skywalker character, in the blue and yellow colors of Ukraine’s flag facing off against a fleet of Star Destroyers flown by the evil empire.
Sign up for the Fortune Features email list so you don’t miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations.
