The Czech initiative “A Gift for Putin” has raised CZK 60 million (over EUR 2.4 million) in public donations to purchase six howitzers for the Ukrainian army.
The initiative’s organizer, Martin Ondracek, said this to the CTK news agency, Ukrinform reports, citing Radio Prague International.
The funds will be used to purchase six new D-30 howitzers. As a symbolic tribute to heroes of Czechoslovak history, each howitzer will be named after a World War II figure.
Ondracek said one of the howitzers has been named “Josef,” in honor of Josef Masin, a member of the resistance group Three Kings. Others are named after Jan Kubis and Jozef Gabcik, who carried out the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, and Karel Kuttelwascher, a famed Czech pilot who served in the Royal Air Force during WWII.
The fundraising campaign for the howitzers began in November 2024. At the same time, the initiative launched another campaign to raise CZK 12.5 million for 500 drones equipped with munitions and control systems.
Since the beginning of 2025, “A Gift for Putin” has already collected CZK 120 million, surpassing the total for the same period in both 2024 and 2023. Since its launch in May 2022, the initiative has raised over CZK 1 billion for weapons and other military equipment for Ukraine.
In March 2025, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov thanked Czech citizens for raising $3 million to purchase a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for Ukraine’s military intelligence.
Source: Czech activists raise CZK 60M for howitzers for Ukraine
