Czech project “A Gift for Putin” (Dárek pro Putina), raising money for weapons for Ukraine, launched an online petition to cut off electricity, heating, and water supply to the embassy and all other Russian-owned buildings in Prague.
The petition is available at this link and is addressed to Czech energy companies.
“Let’s give the Russian embassy in Prague a taste of their own medicine. We have launched a petition and want the energy and water providers to turn off all Prague buildings belonging to the Russian Federation. Let them also freeze in the dark, like, for example, people in Kyiv. Thank you for signing and reposting,” the authors of the initiative addressed all concerned Internet users.
The Russian army has been conducting missile strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for several weeks almost daily. Due to the destroyed thermal power plants and boiler houses in many cities, electricity and heat are supplied intermittently.
“For several weeks, Ukrainian cities and towns have been subjected to unprecedented missile attacks from Russia. The targets are mainly power plants, heating plants, and waterworks. This new phase of the war has a catastrophic and daily impact on the lives of civilians. Not only apartments, schools, kindergartens, shops, and factories are left without electricity and water, but also, for example, hospitals. Russia has decided to break Ukraine with darkness and frost. From the point of view of the highest moral principle, we call on public and private energy suppliers to give the Russian diplomats in Prague a taste of their own medicine. We demand that all buildings owned by the Russian Federation be disconnected from gas, water, and electricity,” states the petition.
The petition has been signed by 1600 people
The gift for Putin project started as an online store that allows everyone to put into a cart and pay by card for completely unusual goods: cartridges, artillery shells, machine guns, night vision devices, mortars, body armor, missiles, and even heavy equipment. The collected money goes to the account of the Ukrainian embassy in Prague, which, based on the actual needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, purchases the required weapons or other military materials.
The authors also conduct fundraising for specific purposes. So, in just four weeks, they managed to collect 33 million crowns for purchasing the Czech tank “Tomas” for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Of course, many will say that it is very naive to believe that the Russian embassy will be cut off from water and energy. But I heard the same thing when we announced that we would send a tank to Ukraine. Many things sound naive until they are implemented.”
“How are we going to do it? The petition must have a significant number of signatures. How many signatures will there be in ten days? There are already people who are working to figure out who we will need to contact if there are a lot of signatures. The shutdown should apply to all buildings owned by the Russian Federation, including houses where diplomats live. The critical moment is disseminating information about our initiative in other countries. If, for example, a similar petition is created in Slovakia or Poland, or international news agencies pick up the information, there will be a result. It might work,” one of the project’s authors, Martin Ondracek, told the iDNES portal.
