The organizers of a recruitment campaign in Slovakia of funds for the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine said today that they want to collect one million euros, regardless of the refusal of their government to send military aid to the neighboring country, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
Thousands of people have already collected 575,000 euros for this crowdfunding campaign since Monday, when the organization "Peace for Ukraine" launched his initiative.
Since coming to power last year, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has cut military aid to Ukraine and called for peace talks with Russia.
"We, the people of Slovakia, want and can help" of Ukraine, Zuzana Izsakova, a representative of the initiative, told AFP, adding: "We want to show that it is not only the government and Robert Fizo who are solving this issue.
The organization plans to hand over the collected funds to an international project to purchase ammunition for Kiev, initiated by the Czech Republic.
Czech Prime Minister Petar Fiala said yesterday that 20 countries have already pledged to finance the purchase of 500,000 shells for Ukraine outside of Europe. The Slovak government has not joined the Czech project, AFP points out.
Marian Kulich, another representative of "Peace for Ukraine", explained that the Slovak initiative was triggered by disagreement with the government's positions regarding Ukraine.
"We are convinced that many people in Slovakia do not identify with the Czech government's rejection of the project," said Marian Kulich.
According to Izsakova, her organization wants to collect the amount of one million euros, which was proposed by the government of Slovenia for the Czech initiative last month.