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Lithuanians raised €5 million ($5.4 million) from its citizens to buy a Bayraktar TB-2 drone for the Ukrainian military.
The country's official Twitter account celebrated the milestone on Saturday. It said the total was achieved in three days thanks mostly to small donations. The fundraising drive was a private initiative started by a media firm.
—#Lithuania 🇱🇹 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 (@Lithuania) May 28, 2022
Bayraktar drones are among the most modern and celebrated weapons in Ukraine's arsenal against Russia, and have become a part of Ukrainian military folklore.
Early in the war, the Ukrainian military posted a series of videos showing Bayraktar strikes on columns of Russian armor that left smoking wreckage behind.
Ukrainian soldiers repeatedly cite the drones in propaganda videos mocking the invading Russians, and also inspired a popular song celebrating their success.
The drones are much slower and carry smaller payloads than US drones like the MQ-9 Reaper, but they are also significantly cheaper.
A New Yorker article published in early May suggested that the Bayraktars may have been losing their edge in recent month, noting Russian claims to have shot many of them down, and a lack of recent videos of successful strikes.
Nonetheless, Ukraine thanked Lithuania, a Baltic state and EU member that borders Russia, with a post of its own.
The fundraiser was organized by Laisves TV, an online broadcaster in Lithuania founded in 2016.
The drive was an unusual addition to the stream of military aid granted to Ukraine since Russian invaded in February.
Most shipments of weapons and other military equipment have come directly governments like those of the US, UK, and European nations. Ukraine itself also started accepting donations earmarked for its armed forces when the war began.
The Lithuanian drive is unusual because the funds were earmarked for a specific piece of equipment.
Ukraine's ambassador to Lithuania, Beshta Petro, celebrated the milestone in an interview with Laisves, according to the Reuters news agency.
"This is the first case in history when ordinary people raise money to buy something like a Bayraktar," he said. "It is unprecedented, it is unbelievable."
It was not immediately clear how the funds would be used to buy the drone or how soon one could be deployed in Ukraine.
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Kieran was an Executive Editor at Business Insider and its first Deputy Bureau Chief in the UK.He spearheaded BI’s work on the war in Ukraine and helped lead its breaking-news effort.He joined Business Insider in 2017, when it had no general-news desk in London, and built that team to more than a dozen people.He helped oversee coverage spanning politics, defense, business, science, health, entertainment, royalty, and lifestyle.In his time at BI, the UK news team won a Drum Award for its Ukraine reporting. Its work was twice shortlisted twice in the British Journalism Awards and highly commended once.He occasionally broke ranks to blog about Latin.Before Business Insider he worked for Dow Jones, MailOnline, The Sun, and The Independent.Kieran graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in English. He speaks some Russian and less French.He is on X with the handle @kj_corcoran.Notable work from his teams includes:The Unyielding City: How Ukraine lost Bakhmut and Russia won a hollow victoryIran will pay for gender-transition surgery, but it comes at a cost — your dignityA bright, talented Ukrainian journalist signed up to help Fox News cover the war. Two months later she was dead.Salt Bae's former employees describe tip theft, discrimination, and polyester uniforms‘I feel conned into keeping this baby’How an entire nation embraced toxic bleach as a COVID-19 miracle cureA Saudi princess, silencedInside London's derelict 'Billionaires Row' — a mile-long street of mystery, murder, and tax avoidance
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