Latvian residents have donated EUR 250,000 for purchase of Bayraktar drone in first day of collection drive

  • 2022-08-17
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - In the first day since the launch of a collection drive in Latvia for the purchase and donation of the Bayraktar combat drone to Ukraine, over EUR 250,000 has been collection, according to information on the portal Ziedot.lv.

The collection driver itself was launched on Tuesday, and already 8,000 persons have donated to the initiative.

According to the publicly available list of doners, some have written in the names of pro-Kremlin politicians operating in Latvia as doners, including European Parliament Member Tatjana Zdanoka (Latvian Union of Russians), who has ''donated'' to the initiative over 10 times. 

As reported, a collection drive for the purchase and donation of the Bayraktar combat drone to Ukraine has been launched in Latvia.

One of the initiators of the donation drive, musician Ralfs Eilands, has shared a video on-line in which he states that by donating to the Latvian Bayraktar campaign, the people of Latvia have the opportunity to show their support for Ukraine in this cruel war, as well as to "give greetings to the Russian occupiers".

As stated in the description of the initiative on the website Ziedot.lv, the Bayraktar TB2 is a remotely controlled unmanned combat aircraft, or drone, manufactured in Turkey. Latvia is not the first country whose residents have decided to express their support for Ukraine by collecting donations for this combat aircraft. Similar campaigns have already taken place, for example, in Poland, Lithuania, Norway and Canada.

The initiative was published yesterday. In total, EUR 5 million must be collected.

The Ministry of Defense also invites residents to participate in the campaign for the purchase of the Bayraktar drone.

Minister of Defense Artis Pabriks (For Development) has expressed the opinion that the this initiative from the public for the purchase of the high-efficiency drone Bayraktar drone for Ukraine's needs, manufactured in Turkey, would be "another strong confirmation that Latvia will continue to support Ukraine in order to enhance its defense capabilities in the fight against Russia".

"From the side of the ministry, we will provide organizational support by coordinating the purchase and delivery of an unmanned aerial vehicle to the Ukrainian army together with Ziedot.lv," added Pabriks.