Lithuania’s Laisves TV said on May 28 it had raised 5 million euros to buy a Bayraktar military drone for Ukraine.
“Now we can really celebrate,” Andrius Tapinas, the host of Laisves TV and the initiator of the campaign, said during a live broadcast.
He also thanked all people who contributed and donated money for the cause.
Since launching the fundraising campaign on May 25, Laisves TV had collected over 5,065,000 euros as of May 28, with the amount still growing.
Laisves TV plans to transfer the money to Lithuania’s Ministry of Defence and its representatives will travel to Turkey to negotiate and sign a letter of intent on buying the drown from the private defence company Baykar.
Ukraine has been fighting a Russian invasion for more than three months and is calling on Western countries to send more weapons.
The Bayraktar drone will be purchased and handed over to Ukraine as soon as possible, Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas said on May 29.
“We will talk with the representatives of the company, we hope as soon as possible,” the minister told journalists.
He said a contract with Laisves TV on the use of the money had yet to be concluded and more paperwork would follow.
“A preliminary agreement will have to be signed and then all the processes will move forward. There will be a lot of paperwork to be done, and eventually the technical specification will have to be defined according to the money we have – what is included, what the Turkish side could add on its side, and so on,” Anusauskas said.
“We are hoping for benevolence from everyone,” he added.
According to the minister, the Ukrainian military has the necessary equipment to operate Bayraktars.
“Ukraine has the control equipment, the skilled people to operate it. If we had to do it ourselves, it would be a bit more complicated,” Anusauskas said.
He added that ammunition was not the problem, but the most important thing was the precise tactical control of the drone so that it returned from operations.
According to Anusauskas, Deputy Defence Minister Vilius Semaska is to travel to Turkey on May 31.
“We’ve already got tickets for Turkey,” Anusauskas said. (LRT/Business World Magazine)