Estonian Man Crowdfunds Drone Purchase for Russian Army, Arrested

An Estonian man who had bought three drones by making an online appeal to support the Russian war effort was caught while trying to sneak in the drones across the Russian border.

The Harju County Court in Estonia found the man and his two supporters guilty of engaging in the acquisition of drones for the Russian army.

The court found that 43-year-old Volodymyr posted a public appeal for Russian support on the social network VKontakte on May 11 and organized a fundraiser to purchase drones for the Russian army, rus.err.ee reported.

"In the appeal, the man asked to transfer money for the purchase of drones to his bank account. With the collected money and personal funds, Vladimir purchased three drones, which he tried to transfer to the Russian Federation through the Koidula border checkpoint, where he was detained," public prosecutors told the court.

The purchased drones were confiscated and the court sentenced the man to one year in prison as a punishment, of which four months actually have to be spent behind bars.

The current Russia-Ukraine war has been marked with extensive usage of drones on both sides. Russia uses drones for attack, surveillance, data relay, artillery pointing and electronic attack. Since drones are relatively easy to shoot as they fly low and slow, but nevertheless useful and cheap, demand for them is high within the Russian armed forces.

The U.S. last week claimed that Russia has been shopping for drones in Iran and warned Tehran against sending drones to Moscow, a charge that Iran did not outrightly deny but responded with an assertion that defense cooperation with Russia had been on since before the war.