Ukraine’s largest private military fund supporting the army from donations, Come Back Alive, starts an ambitious UAH 400 million ($10 million) fundraising campaign. The collected funds will be used to purchase 100 automatic grenade launchers, 200 large-caliber machine guns, and 300 82 mm mortars for 31 brigades of Ukraine’s territorial defense.
The fund said that weapons would be transferred to the military in batches as soon as they are manufactured.
As was reported, the Come Back Alive has just finished another $9 million campaign, purchasing long-range mortars for Ukraine’s territorial defense brigades, and $8 million to supply 75 long range Ukrainian-made reconnaissance UAV’s Shark from Ukraine’s Ukrspecsystems. In total, the fund has raised nearly $180 million since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014. Donations for their new project can be made for the special account of the initiative on its web page.
The Ukrainian gas stations chain OKKO, which has already contributed to the previous fund’s campaigns, will also contribute to the new campaign, donating 1 UAH from each fuel liter it sells.
“There is no time for expansion when the war is going on. For the sake of victory, we continue to provide and strengthen our military. So while the first project was ongoing, we worked together with the foundation and already approved the second one,” comments OKKO CEO Vasyl Danyliak.
“We are buying collective, group infantry weapons, for which there is the greatest demand in the war that is currently taking place in the East. These are the weapons that are not individual, but directly fight on the battlefield at the level of platoons, at the level of companies, at the battalion level,” comments Taras Chmut, the director of Come Back Alive. “Each of the 31 brigades of the Territorial Defense is involved in combat operations. They have a large shortage of the very weapons that we purchase, and what we purchase will significantly increase the potential of most Territorial Defense brigades directly on the battlefield.“
As was reported earlier by Euromaidan Press, soldiers fighting in Bakhmut face a critical shortage of mortars, grenade launchers, and ammunition for them:
