The Slovak cabinet’s refusal to join an initiative by the Czech government to buy up hundreds of thousands of shells for the Ukrainian armed forces has spurred a crowdfunding campaign among Slovaks that exceeded its target of €1m less than 48 hours after it was launched.
A 99-year-old Holocaust survivor and veteran of the 1944 Slovak National Uprising against the Nazis, Otto Simko, helped kickstart the campaign to challenge the government’s policy, according to the BBC.
The campaign allows Slovaks to bypass the populist-nationalist government of Robert Fico, who came to power in October pledging not to send ‘one more round of ammunition’ to Ukraine.
Fico has refused to join about 20 countries that have signed up to the Czech operation to procure large quantities of artillery ammunition.
The Slovak Prime Minister has argued that the West’s policy of arming Ukraine is only prolonging the conflict, and Kyiv should instead lay down its arms and sue for peace with Moscow.
But Otto Simko disagrees.
He is quoted by the BBC as saying: ‘We have to drive Putin out of Ukraine. We have to defeat him.
‘I lived through the Second World War. I fought in it. I can tell you there was no point negotiating with Hitler and there is no point negotiating with Putin.’
The BBC reports that it was a random conversation the Slovak veteran had with a journalist and a philosopher that led to the idea of crowdfunding to get Slovak help for Kyiv.
By yesterday morning, more than 23 000 people had donated more than €1.5m euros. The crowdfunding campaign was launched on Tuesday afternoon. The money will go directly to the Czech government’s initiative.
[Image: Joachim Schnürle from Pixabay]