The Czech volunteer initiative Darek pro Putina (A Gift for Putin) on Thursday announced the closing of fundraising for the Ukrainian ballistic missile "Flamingo", launched earlier this week.
This was reported on the initiative’s website.
By Thursday evening, "A Gift for Putin" had raised nearly 13.2 million Czech koruna (USD 630,000) of the 12.5 million required. As the initiative’s organizer Martin Ondráček told the Novinky portal, the fundraiser was closed after 48 hours.
“We hoped we could collect the sum in a week. But this happened in 48 hours, which is a record. It exceeded all our expectations,” he said.
Ondráček said he will hold another round of negotiations with the manufacturer of the "Flamingo", and announced “a deal that may be quite a big surprise for the people who contributed to the missile.”
The missile purchased via the crowdfunding campaign is to be named DANA 1 in honor of Dana Drábová — a Czech politician and physicist who died in early October. After payment, the missile will be handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
