British FV103 Spartan APC
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60 British FV103 Spartan armored personnel carriers were purchased in 36 hours through crowdfunding.
$6.5 million was raised for the hardly-used equipment by Ukraine’s Serhiy Prytula charity foundation.
The APCs will help the Ukrainian troops in the difficult conditions expected over the winter months.
A fundraising appeal to purchase 60 armored personnel carriers for Ukraine raised $6.5m within 36 hours.
The move to buy the FV103 Spartan APCs from the UK was launched by the Serhiy Prytula charity foundation on Wednesday to help provide Ukraine with much-needed vehicles ahead of harsh winter conditions.
The donors ranged from private individuals to big Ukrainian corporations and smaller firms.
The hardly used vehicles until recently belonged to the British army and are currently being stored in secret warehouses across the UK. They are said to have driven fewer than 10,000 miles, reported The Guardian.
“The base is tracked, and due to that fact, it can move around in bad weather conditions because we have rain almost every day right now during the autumn season. It’s going to start snowing soon, and the Spartans will be very good on the frontline in the south of the country and especially in Donbas, where the heaviest fighting is going on right now,” Maksym Kostetsky, the transport direction coordinator at the Prytula Foundation, told The Guardian.
Charity founder Prytula, a popular Ukrainian TV presenter, visited the UK to check on the vehicles before beginning the crowdfunding.
—Serhiy Prytula (@serhiyprytula) November 3, 2022
Thirty-five FV103 Spartans had previously been donated by the British government to Ukraine and proved to be highly successful on the battlefield, reported The Guardian.
“We are the first organization that is going to actually procure them, not as a state, as a country, but as an NGO who would give them to the ministry of defense of Ukraine,” Maksym Kostetsky, the transport direction coordinator at the Prytula Foundation, told The Guardian.
Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, a trend has emerged of citizens and corporations fundraising to help Ukraine’s war effort. One unique example was an OnlyFans-inspired group that sold nudes that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Prytula Foundation has also funded cars, drones, communication systems, and medical equipment.
They helped secure $16m to purchase three Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles bought from Turkey, which have been effective for Ukraine on the battlefield.
Maria Pysarenko, media manager at the Prytula Foundation, said they could often tap into public sentiments to raise money for the war effort, The Guardian reported.
For example, the foundation channeled anger over Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets about his ideas on how to end the war.
“We decided, OK, people are so angry, and we can convert this anger into something helpful,” Pysarenko told the paper. “And we announced a fundraiser to buy a history textbook for Musk on Twitter. And you know, in an hour, we had 1m Ukrainian hryvnias (£24,000) donated to our accounts, and we’re like, OK, so we have enough money, literally, to buy textbooks but also to buy a supply of radio stations for one unit.”
While some campaigns can be reactive, others can be long and complicated to plan, she said.
Another source of fundraising from Ukraine has been its United24 platform launched by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which collects charitable donations for Ukraine.
Mark Hamill, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” film series, is a celebrity ambassador United24 initiative. He has helped send at least 500 drones to support the Ukrainian war effort, he told a Bloomberg interview.