Dárek pro Putina Czech initiative raises over $72 million for Ukraine in four years

The Czech project Dárek pro Putina (The Gift for Putin) has raised almost 1.5 billion crowns (over $72 million) for Ukraine in nearly four years of existence, mainly for weapons.

This was announced by the project's creator, Martin Ondráček, in an interview with Ukrinform.

“We have raised 1 billion 485 million crowns (over $72 million – ed.),” Ondráček said.

According to him, dozens of large campaigns were organized, thanks to which thousands of drones, tens of thousands of ammunition units, and hundreds of vehicles were purchased and transferred to Ukraine.

In particular, 384 million crowns were raised last year, of which 100 million was a one-time donation from the owner of the Czech company Seznam, Ivo Lukačovič. In total, 89,000 people sent donations last year, Ondráček said.

He noted that since the beginning of this year, the number of donors has exceeded 112,000. As of February 19, 228 million crowns have been collected, of which 187 million came from 96,000 donors to the SOS Kyiv campaign to purchase generators amid Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

As reported, the Dárek pro Putina initiative arose in the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting with the Ukrainian Embassy in the Czech Republic opening an account to collect money to purchase weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.