Lithuania’s Laisvės TV said on Saturday it had raised 5 million euros to buy a Bayraktar military drone for Ukraine.
“Now we can really celebrate,” Andrius Tapinas, the host of Laisvės 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.
Read more: Lithuanian influencer launches €5m crowdfunding to gift Bayraktar drone to Ukraine
Since launching the fundraising campaign on Wednesday, Laisvės TV had collected over 5,065,000 euros by Saturday, with the amount still growing.
Laisvės TV plans to transfer the money to Lithuania’s Ministry of Defence and its representatives will travel to Turkey next week 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.
Going to Turkey on Tuesday
The Bayraktar drone will be purchased and handed over to Ukraine as soon as possible, Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas said on Sunday.
“We will talk with the representatives of the company, we hope as soon as possible,” the minister told journalists.
He said a contract with Laisvės TV on the use of the money has yet to be concluded and more paperwork will 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,” Anušauskas 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,” Anušauskas said.
He added that ammunition is not the problem, but the most important thing is the precise tactical control of the drone so that it returns from operations.
According to Anušauskas, Deputy Defence Minister Vilius Semaška is to travel to Turkey on Tuesday.
“We’ve already got tickets for Turkey,” Anušauskas said.
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