Earlier this year, with Ukraine’s counteroffensive falling flat, Russia asserting dominance in artillery fire and U.S. aid to Kyiv mired in Washington politics, the Czech government set up a platform to gather donations from allied countries to co-finance the purchase of ammunition from producers around the world. In doing so, the aim was to side-step criticism from some EU countries such as France which only wanted to use public cash to support local stocks and raise billions for artillery.
While EU countries such as Germany and Belgium to the likes of Canada and Norway have since lined up to pay into the Czech program, Fico’s government has refused to sanction military help for Ukraine with the prime minister even claiming that Prague “has an interest in supporting the war in Ukraine.”
That prompted a group of politicians and campaigners in Bratislava to launch the crowd-funding initiative last Monday.
“We refuse to accept the denial of aid to a war-torn neighbor,” the Ammunition for Ukraine group says on its website, which lists donations in real time. “We will help Ukraine despite our pro-Russian government.”
The price of a shell varies, but industry experts pitch the price at around €3,500 per unit, meaning the campaign has already covered the cost of more than 800 rounds. The average contribution works out to roughly €62 and the plan, according to Štasselová, is to persuade donors to make regular contributions and also to push for international donations.
The pace of payments in under a week puts the crowd-funding drive ahead of some governments. For example, Slovenia pledged €1 million to the Czech platform, while Latvia has paid €7 million and Sweden €30 million.
“We plan to keep going with the [fund] raising until people are willing to donate,” said Štasselová. “Every euro will be used for purchasing ammunition and weapons for Ukraine.”
