Ukraine’s crowdfunding raises $10m in 24 hours to buy kamikaze drones

Nearly $10 million has been raised in 24 hours to buy loitering munitions, often known as kamikaze drones, for Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Thousands of Ukrainians have chipped in together to buy an advanced thousand kamikaze drones for Ukrainian troops after coordinated Russian missile strikes on civilian targets in cities across the country.

According to Serhiy Prytula, who organized the initiative, an initial 50 Ram II drones, designed and built by Ukrainian companies, will be bought with the money, along with three control stations.

“We’ve raised $9.6 million!! Thank you, generous and noble Ukrainians! We will make sure these funds are well spent on effective support of our Armed Forces,” Prytula said.

The Ram II is a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a 3kg explosive payload and is designed to engage beyond line-of-sight ground targets.

According to Militarnyi, the kamikaze drone is moving at a speed of up to 70 km/h. It searches for enemy objects on the ground using cameras with a tenfold zoom within a radius of up to 30 km from the launch site and within 55 minutes. It is stated that electronic warfare equipment can “muffle” communication with the operator, but in this case, the drone returns to the base by itself and lands with a parachute.