A private auction has already raised over half the amount needed to buy a Bayraktar armed drone for Ukraine.
Ukrainian Ambassador to Lithuania Petro Beshta (L) and Lithuanian Minister of National Defence Arvydas Anusauskas attend the presentation of combat drone Bayraktar TB2 at Siauliai Airbase, Lithuania, 06 July 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDA KALNINA.
Poles have so far raised about 14 of the 22.5 million zloty (4.6 million euros) needed to buy a Bayraktar TB-2 drone for Ukraine.
The auction, which was started on the fundraising website zrutka.pl by left-wing public intellectual Slawomir Sierakowski, has proven popular, with prominent individuals, such as Oscar-nominated director Agnieszka Holland and Gazeta Wyborcza editor-in-chief Adam Michnik, endorsing it.
In May, Lithuanians set an example when they raised the money needed to buy a Bayraktar for Ukraine in a matter of days. In June, Baykar, the Turkish private manufacturer of the drone, announced it would donate the machine to Lithuania so that the money raised by that country’s citizens could instead be used for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Sierakowski, the initiator of the Polish fundraiser, said it was the Lithuanian example that inspired him. In an interview published in Gazeta Wyborcza on July 15, Sierakowski said “his eyes lit up” when he heard about Baykar’s decision to donate the drone for Ukraine to Lithuania. “This is an opportunity,” Sierakowski recounts thinking. “Maybe the company will behave in a similar way and then our help would be doubled.”
The weapons manufacturer is owned by Selcuk Bayraktar, the son-in-law of Turkish President Erdogan. It has been deployed to deadly effect in Libya and Syria and in the second Nagorno-Karabakh war of 2020 where it played a key role in ensuring Armenia’s defeat by Azerbaijan.
Turkish military experts interviewed by BIRN said the Bayraktar TB-2 has become a powerful tool to both boost military exports and project Turkish influence –while empowering and enriching those around Erdogan in the process.
Asked about the irony of left-wing intellectual fundraising to buy weapons from Turkey’s authoritarian leader, Sierakowski was unfazed. “If the Vatican sold weapons, we would buy from them,” he told Wyborcza. “For the moment, the choice is Putin or Erdogan. I prefer Erdogan to Putin.”
Ukraine has used the Bayraktar successfully to attack Russian tanks and artillery pieces and reportedly played a role in the destruction of the Russian ballistic missile cruiser Moskva.
Ever since the war started in February, Ukraine has been asking the West to send more offensive weaponry, which NATO countries have avoided in order to prevent a geographical expansion of the war with Russia.
Since the war began, Poland has been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine, and Polish Left has distanced itself from some Western political counterparts arguing for pacifistic positions.
“Poland will be next,” Sierakowski said when asked what happens if Russia conquers Ukraine. “By paying for the Bayraktar, we’re not only concretely helping Ukrainians but also investing in our own security.”
Source link: balkaninsight.com
