UKRAINE’s winning Eurovision stars have told their trophy for more than £700,000 to raise money for the country’s ongoing war with Russia.
Kalush Orchestra parted with the crystal microphone the group were awarded earlier this month for £712,000 in a Facebook auction led by Ukrainian TV presenter Serhiy Prytula on Sunday.
A further £292,788 was raised by raffling off the pink bucket hat frontman Oleh Psiuk wore during the performance.
The money will be used to buy drones for the Ukrainian armed forces fighting invading Russia troops.
The winning bid for the trophy was attributed to Whitebit, a cryptocurrency exchange, and came in the form of 500 Ethereum, equivalent to £712,000.
Writing on Facebook, the band said: “We appreciate each and every one of you who donated to this auction and a special thanks to the team Whitebit who purchased the trophy and are now the rightful owners of our trophy.”
Ukraine swept the public vote at Eurovision to claim an emotional win with their entry Stefania, riding a wave of public support amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Prytula said there were 31,088 entries into the raffle for the hat from 56 countries, and that the winner was in the Czech Republic.
