Poles have raised the 22.5 million PLN to purchase the Turkish Bayraktar drone. The target was reached after 2 p.m. on Sunday. The aircraft will be sent to the fighting Ukrainians, who will be able to destroy Russian equipment more effectively.

The amount needed to buy the Bayraktar was reached four days before the end of the collection set up by columnist Slawomir Sierakowski. The initiator announced if more than 22.5 million PLN could be raised, the surplus would go to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ account in the country’s central bank.

“It was stipulated from the beginning of the collection that the funds would go to the National Bank of Ukraine for the Armed Forces Fund”, said Sierakowski. He added that this was a real opportunity to help Kyiv in the war, and pointed out that the company could donate the combat machines to Ukraine free of charge and the funds would go to humanitarian causes.

“This will then mean that we will help Ukraine twice. It will be more than 40 million PLN,” he said.

The organiser of the collection stressed that despite the fact that the war is already in its fifth month, Poles are able to mobilise for a good cause. “Bayraktar protects the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. We are sending a message of hope to Ukraine,” stated Sierakowski.

In addition to Poles at home and abroad, the “Let’s buy Bayraktar for Ukrainians!” campaign was also supported by Ukrainians and Belarusians living in Poland.

“This is the biggest crowdfunding in the history of our service, which has been operating since 2013”, said Tomasz Chołast, co-founder of Zrzutka.pl, told ‘Presserwis’. Record-breakers have donated more than PLN 20,000.

Earlier, the drone manufacturer Baykar Makina from Turkey donated three Bayraktars to Ukraine for free. The Lithuanians also conducted their collection for the purchase of one such unmanned aerial vehicle. Thanks to these machines, Ukrainians managed to eliminate many of the occupying troops and destroy a lot of equipment of the Russian aggressor.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński