It’s been well over a hundred days and we are standing our ground while Vladimir Putin’s troops are making little or no progress in their offensive. It took “the second army in the world” months, and literally thousands of bombs dropped all over our country, to finally get into Severodonetsk yesterday. A small town in the Donbas region.

Ukraine’s unexpectedly powerful resistance forced Russia’s president to abandon a lot of his plans: they’ve already abandoned the plan to come into Kyiv and Kharkiv, and fled in a hurry. Russia’s goals in this war changed so many times, especially with recurring failures of each set goal. Nowadays Russian forces are bombing Ukraine from Russia, Belorussia, Occupied Crimea, and Donbas with a declared goal of “who knows why”.

All of this resulted in Putin rarely even appearing in public. His embarrassment in Ukraine guided his decision to cancel his yearly phone marathon with Russian citizens, which was a huge deal in Russia. Furthermore, the only time that Putin mustered the courage and got on the stage was during his recent International St Petersburg Economic Forum, only to be humiliated by the only foreign leader that came to the “International” forum: the President of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan’s leader said they would abide by the Western sanctions and that Kazakhstan won’t ever recognise the pro-Russian quasi-republics that Putin formed in Ukrainian Donbas.

Now, none of the above-mentioned would be possible if it wasn’t for Ukrainians and their will to win and live in a free democratic country. Our brave military and territorial defence, our medics, our activists and volunteers, our diaspora and the Ukrainian people as a nation – all are the reason Putin’s “second army in the world” is so unsuccessful here. We can come together as a nation and achieve the impossible. Today I’m going to tell you about average Ukrainian citizens that do what they can, with what they have where they are, and can fundraise 600,000,000 million hryvnias in three days to buy our army new Bayraktar drones. 

Why are the Bayraktar drones so important?

Bayraktar drone. Rehearsal of a military parade in Kyiv in 2021. (Photo: AP Photo / Efrem Lukatsky)

Bayraktar drones have played a huge role in Ukraine’s defence from the very start of the war. These Turkish gods of the sky have provided our armed forces with the much-needed power to push back the initial assault and slow down Russian progression throughout Ukraine. It is an essential part of our defence system and its high importance cannot be overstated.

Bayraktars have successfully located and destroyed numerous enemy armoured vehicles, helicopters, ships, artillery, anti-aircraft machinery, rocket launchers, communication stations, command posts, and more. We started the war with 30 of the Turkish Bayraktar drones and, unfortunately, have lost eight of them in combat. As you can see, they are not only important, but extremely necessary to keep successfully defending our land.

How did it all start?

It all started with a huge friend of Ukraine – Lithuania. Lithuanians have been extremely supportive and stood by us not only from the first day of Russia’s barbaric war but since Putin gave the first orders to attack our nation eight years ago – in 2014. Baltic countries know all too well what Russia is and what Russian occupation means – they’ve all been through it and all went through rebuilding their countries, getting back to their native language, and getting as far away as possible from the memories of the dictatorship that was the Soviet Union and towards democracy and the rule of law.

Thus, at the end of last month, all of Lithuania decided they wanted to help us in a special way: gift us a Bayraktar drone. Laisves TV, the Lithuanian internet broadcaster, set the target of €5-million and began fundraising. They reached their target in three days and – I want to emphasise – with donations overwhelmingly in small amounts between €5 and €100. This means that every Lithuanian wanted to participate in our common win in any way they could.

Later on, when the Turkish company that manufactures Bayraktar drones – Baykar Makina – found out about this Lithuanian initiative, they gifted the drone to Ukraine from them and the money raised went towards purchasing the necessary ammunition. And this is how Ukrainians got inspired to buy more Bayraktars for our armed forces.

Three days, 600,000,000 hryvnias, four drones

Just a mere three days ago, Serhiy Prytula, a famous Ukrainian public and political figure, TV presenter, actor and producer, announced that his charity organisation is starting a crowdfunding campaign for a “Peoples Bayraktar”. He made the announcement along with a famous Ukrainian blogger that the goal is 500-million hryvnias, which can buy us three Bayraktars, and they planned to try to raise the money in a week. In three days Prytula posted a video on his Facebook page with tears in his eyes, saying he has two numbers for our nation: 600-million and four Bayraktars!

I want to congratulate my nation on its unbreakable will to fight for its freedom and country. And, I want every person who is willing to repeat Russian propaganda that the people of Ukraine want to be a part of Russia to remember this story: a country with tens of millions of misplaced and migrated citizens, with destroyed cities, that is heavily bombed every single day, the country where millions of people lost their income is raising 600,000,000 for their military just to help to destroy this evil on our land.  DM