Ukrainian turns wreckage of a Russian fighter into a key chain... and sells it for a thousand dollars

A Ukrainian businessman has turned part of the wreckage of a downed Russian fighter plane into souvenir key chains that he sells outside Ukraine to support the war effort.

"A lot of my friends told me that no one would give me a thousand dollars for this coin. This is crazy," said Yuri Vesuven, founder of Drones for Eucharin.

"I woke up in the morning to find out on my phone that $20,000 to $30,000 had already been raised. We saw this constant stream of messages with questions and people saying (they) they wanted to donate more, and they told us it was a great idea," he added.

The Ukrainian military says it shot down the plane, a Russian two-seat Sukhoi-34 tactical bomber, over the town of Borodianka northwest of Kyiv in early March when Russian forces were trying to seize the area.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry released photos of wreckage that it said bore the code number of the FR-81251 plane, which bears the "31 red" insignia.

After the Russians withdrew to concentrate on military operations in eastern Ukraine, Vesuvven asked the defenders of the area to obtain some wreckage scattered over farmland.

He added that the soldiers told him that both pilots had been killed.

Among the debris displayed by the ministry is the helmet of one of the pilots.

The advertising company Vesuvun's keychain is a rectangular piece of about ten centimeters long stamped with part of the fuselage, then shaped, polished and printed with information about the plane with the words "Thank you" to the buyer.

Each rectangular piece has a hole to insert a key ring, and has a unique serial number.

"What's so special about this keychain is that we made it from the wreckage of a real Russian plane," Vesoven said. "This is a truly unique gift for those who helped us."

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