The immediate collection was announced on Wednesday. Equipment began to be purchased on Thursday. — Since Thursday, volunteers have been ordering and buying generators for hospitals and households, looking for spare batteries and small tourist equipment to help people as quickly as possible, Martin Ondraczek, one of the organizers of the collection, told the CTK agency. He stated that he did not expect the pace or increasing amount of the reaction, nor the participation in the collection of 60,000. people.
How much money did the Czechs raise to purchase generators?
Who is the organizer of the collection in the Czech Republic?
What support does Kyiv receive thanks to the collection?
How much money was collected in the Polish campaign 'Heat from Poland for Kiev'?
According to Ondraczek, the extremely quick and generous response to the appeal for help for the freezing Kiev is, at least partly, a response to the distance towards Ukraine's support from the new Czech government, headed by Andrej Babis.
— I think these are partly protest votes, 60,000. people expressed their solidarity with the current government – says Ondraczek and added – There is no point in going to demonstrations, it is worth demonstrating with a credit card – he said.
The money from the current collection has already been used to purchase, among others: generators for two smaller hospitals. The aid is directed to retirement homes or specific families who live without electricity in rooms where the temperature ranges from 8 to 9 degrees Celsius.
War in Ukraine. The Czech president thanks his compatriots
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Andriy Sybiha, as well as the Czech President Petr Pavel, thanked the Czechs for their help.
“I am extremely proud of all of you who donate and for whom solidarity is not an abstract concept. There are many decent and admirable people in our country. Under normal circumstances, they are not so visible and audible. Now you are visible and I thank you very much for that,” Pavel wrote on the X social media platform.
The organizer of the collection is an independent public benefit organization “Gift for Putin”, whose name ironically refers to the name of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who started the aggression against Ukraine. The initiative organizes fundraisers. It bought anti-tank missiles and drones. Previously, it purchased and donated an RM-70 missile launcher, a T-72 tank and an American Black Hawk helicopter to the Ukrainian army. Every idea for collection and subsequent purchases is coordinated with the Ukrainian side.
The Polish collection “Heat from Poland for Kiev” already has almost PLN 8 million.
