By Leonardo Benassato
Kyiv – Never mind forging swords into ploughshares; A Ukrainian businessman turns wreckage from a downed Russian fighter plane into souvenir keychains and sells them abroad to help the war effort.
“A lot of my friends tell me ‘$1,000 – nobody’s going to give you that for that piece of metal, it’s crazy,'” said Iurii Vysoven, founder of Drones for Ukraine.
“I woke up in the morning and understood on my phone that $20,000-$30,000 had already been raised and we see this constant flow of messages from people asking questions and saying they want to donate more, they say so us is an incredible idea.”
The plane is a Russian two-seat Su-34 tactical fighter-bomber that Ukrainian military said was shot down over the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, in early March as Russian forces attempted to capture and hold the area.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has released images of the wreck, said to have the stern number RF-81251 and the callsign “31 Red”.
After the Russians withdrew and concentrated their invasion on eastern Ukraine, Vysoven asked the region’s defenders if he could have some of the debris strewn across farmland.
The soldiers told him both pilots of the plane had been killed. Among the wreckage shown by the ministry were a helmet printed with the last three letters of a surname in Russian ending in “-NOV” and an empty leather holster marked “Buryat” – the name of an ethnic group living in Siberia .
Russia does not confirm details of its military casualties, and Reuters has not been able to verify the circumstances of the plane’s crash.
Vysoven, who works in advertising, has fuselage fragments stamped into oblong pieces about 10 cm (4 inches) long, then machined, polished and imprinted with information about the aircraft and a “thank you” to the buyer. Each is perforated to accommodate a key ring and engraved with a unique serial number.
The story goes on
“The uniqueness of this keychain is that we made it from the wreckage of a real Russian plane,” he said. “This is a truly unique gift for those who have helped us.”
Vysoven keeps a copy of the infrared thermal imaging drones in his office, which he buys for the Ukrainian army with the proceeds from the keychains.
“Now that we’ve raised a lot more money, we feel a lot more responsible,” he said. “My dream is this fund – we wouldn’t need it anymore. My dream is to win, everyone is safe,” he added in English.
“Everyone is returning home safely. And (that) we don’t have to raise money to save someone’s life.”
(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Ros Russell)