Organizer of the "Gift for Putin" fundraiser to sue blogger over helicopter fraud allegations

Miroslav Ondráček, organizer of the Czech initiative "Darek pro Putina" ("A Gift for Putin"), announced that on Monday he will file a police complaint accusing anonymous blogger Tomáš Paukner of defamation, and is also considering a civil lawsuit. The dispute stems from a social media post claiming that the helicopter purchased with donated funds for Ukraine never actually left the Czech Republic.

The initiative raised roughly 72 million korunas from Czech donors to buy a UH-60A Black Hawk military helicopter, which was named "Čestmír." According to the organizers' official account, the aircraft was handed over to Ukrainian military intelligence and is now being used on the front line against Russian forces.

What the allegations claim

The author of the anonymous account Tomáš Paukner — occasionally cited even by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš — wrote that, based on "several independent sources," the "Čestmír" helicopter appears to have never actually flown to Ukraine. According to his account, the aircraft is currently in Mělník, Czech Republic, and has been used to fight wildfires in France.

The blogger claimed this is the very same Black Hawk helicopter, registration number OM-BHB, that the initiative publicly displayed on 17 November 2023 at Letná Plain in Prague when the fundraising campaign was launched. He alleged the aircraft actually belongs to Czech arms dealer Jaroslav Strnad and his Slovak company, Slovak Training Academy, which has for several years been leasing this and another helicopter to the Czech Ministries of Interior and Agriculture for 70 million korunas a year.

The organizers' response

Ondráček dismissed these claims as "easily disprovable lies," saying that the initiative ultimately purchased an entirely different helicopter — one considerably cheaper than the aircraft originally shown at Letná, which cost over 100 million korunas, a price the organizers felt was inflated.

He said the replacement aircraft was found through contacts with Ukrainian military intelligence in the United States, where a private company buys decommissioned Black Hawks from the government, refurbishes them, and sells them to clients. The helicopter cost around 70 million korunas, with transport adding nearly 3 million korunas more. According to the organizer, all the relevant contracts exist but are not made public for security reasons, and the helicopter is now officially registered with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"We promised not to disclose the channel through which the equipment is delivered to Ukraine," Ondráček explained, adding that representatives of the initiative had personally seen the helicopter on-site several times, though they are not privy to details of its combat use.

What happened next

On Saturday evening, the author of the anonymous account deleted the original post about the alleged "scam," but ANO party MP Denis Doksanský had already shared it on his Facebook page, calling the blogger's discovery "extremely serious." Later, a new post appeared on the same anonymous account, in which the author acknowledged that the initiative may indeed have bought a different helicopter, and that the lack of public registration data could be explained by the secrecy surrounding the deal. "I'd rather hold off writing anything further until the aircraft's origin — at least its serial number — is clarified," the blogger wrote.

Ondráček responded by vowing to take the matter to court. "Dear Paukner, whoever you are, see you in court. And something tells me we won't be the only ones suing you over this nonsense," he said.

Read also: Rental agreements in Czechia 2026: nájem vs podnájem, kauce

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz