Poles have collected over PLN 23.5 million to buy a Bayraktar drone for the Ukrainian army. More than 200,000 Poles pitched in and made an online collection held on a popular Polish crowdfunding site Zrzutka.pl. The interest to contribute was so big that the site crashed 5 times yesterday and exceeded the assumed goal. Instead of assumed PLN 22.5 million, Poles have already collected PLN 23.5 million!
Zebrane! 22,500,000 zł. Made in Poland https://t.co/a2lyrTmkqj pic.twitter.com/Hy0y7uRYDD
— Krytyka Polityczna ?? (@krytyka) July 24, 2022
The Polish campaign to “Buy Ukraine a Bayraktar” was inspired by a similar fundraising effort done in Lithuania organised by a famous Lithuanian journalist and social activist Andrius Tapinas. Similarly to the Polish success, almost EUR 6 million were raised in 3 days during the Lithuanian collection.
“This weekend we received a lot of inquiries, e-mails and texts. There are signs that a lot of people still want to join the fundraiser. Our servers have died five times today, despite the really good security of the Zrzutka.pl portal, where the collection is taking place. People want to feel that they have done something concrete for the defense of Ukraine, so we want to give the opportunity to all those who still want to get involved to do it”, Sławomir Sierakowski, journalist, editor of “Krytyka Polityczna” and the collection organizer said on Sunday in an interview with PAP. (tokfm.pl)
On Sunday, the collection achieved the assumed goal of PLN 22.5 million, but the amount of money is still getting bigger. For now, there is already over PLN 23.5 million on the account on the Zrzutka.pl portal. The final sum collected by Poles will be known after the fundraiser ends in 6 days. According to the organizers, the surplus money is to be forwarded to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.