This “Gift for Putin” is a Czech crowdfunding project whose goal is to buy a Black Hawk helicopter for $4 million amid fears of a Western withdrawal from Kiev.
A “gift for Putin”: After millions of euros have already been collected to transport weapons to Ukraine, a Czech crowdfunding project has set itself the goal of buying a Black Hawk helicopter – out of fear that the West will withdraw from Kiev. Since its launch, the initiative, titled “Gift for Putin,” has raised the equivalent of $27.5 million (23.1 million euros) from more than 188,000 donors to purchase a tank, a rocket launcher, a demining system, drones and ammunition.
Foreign donors provided 8% of the sums collected. The Czech website, translated into six languages, also sells T-shirts mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin and other gifts to encourage donors. Led by former television editor Martin Ondracek, the project now aims to raise funds to purchase a Black Hawk helicopter worth an estimated $4 million (€3.6 million).
“We want to tell the world that Ukraine needs these things” and “put pressure on them,” says Martin Ondracek.
According to him, the deliveries to Kiev made possible by these fundraising efforts had a domino effect on Western governments. Three months after the site financed an attack tank for Ukraine, the Dutch and Danish governments signed an agreement that provided for the purchase of ten armored vehicles from the Czech Republic to deliver to Kiev, he points out. Previously.
“The same thing happened after we sent an anti-drone system,” notes Martin Ondracek. “And we know that the American army has thousands of Black Hawks,” he adds.
“Money comes slower”
For its part, the Czech government has provided significant humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine and has welcomed around half a million Ukrainian refugees. But that support is waning, and Martin Ondracek fears that Western European countries are growing tired of supporting Kiev and its war effort.
“Ukraine is too far away from them and they don’t have terrible historical experiences with Russia,” he complains.
The website emphasizes that this was not the case in the former Czechoslovakia, which was ruled by communists under Moscow’s control from 1948 to 1989 and suppressed all dissent. The minimum donation is 1,968 crowns (80 euros), a reference to the Soviet suppression of the liberal Prague Spring movement in 1968. “Gift for Putin” comes from a crowdfunding campaign by the Ukrainian embassy in Prague, which was a resounding success at the beginning of the The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 raised almost 2.3 million euros.
“With this money it was possible to buy four trucks full of rocket launchers for Ukraine three days after the start of the war,” explains Martin Ondracek.
The pace of donations has slowed since then. After the first three days of picking up the Black Hawk, the counter stands at around 366,000 euros.
“The mood within society has changed in a year, the money is arriving more slowly,” estimates Martin Ondracek, who hopes to raise the necessary sum in 150 days. His future projects include building a drone factory to counter the Russian army’s advantage over Ukrainian forces in the area.
Martin Ondracek, who has been hosting a Ukrainian family in his second home since the beginning of the war, has visited Ukraine several times. “I’m really looking forward to going back there with my wife for a long holiday after the war is over,” he says.