Volodymyr Zelensky's jacket sells for a bomb at fundraiser for Ukraine

The starting bid for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's jacket was £50,000 or about Rs 47.5 lakh. (Image credit: @AnthropyFounder/Twitter)

A fleece jacket worn and signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sold for £90,000, or Rs 85.6 lakh, at a fundraiser hosted by the Ukraine Embassy in London on Thursday.

"Today, the whole word looks up to a man wearing a simple fleece jacket," the Ukrainian Embassy to the United Kingdom said in a video on Twitter. It included a clip of Zelensky wearing the khaki jacket. "And now the iconic item, personally signed by President Zelensky, is here."

There was one and only @ZelenskyyUa fleece among the lots. It was sold for £90k pic.twitter.com/Rmxmhp1aeg

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— Embassy of Ukraine to the UK (@UkrEmbLondon) May 7, 2022

The goal of the event was to "tell the stories of (Ukrainian) bravery which became iconic during the war, as well as to raise funds to support this bravery," the embassy tweeted.
Ahead of the auction, Volodymyr Zelensky praised the UK and its 'brave' Prime Minister Boris Johnson over a video call. Johnson had recently met the Ukrainian President in Kyiv.

Johnson also urged attendees to take part in the bidding for charity. "Whether you are bidding for Volodymyr's fleece - a snip at £50,000, I want much higher bids than that, or you are bidding for a tour of Kyiv with Mayor Klitschko, I have had a tour of Kyiv with Mayor Klitschko, it's a beautiful city. Well worth it, dig deep," he said, reported Daily Mail.

Other items included in the "Brave Ukraine" fundraiser were toys donated by Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska and photos by late photographer Max Levine.

The event raised over $1 million for "With Ukraine," the embassy's official fundraising effort. Most of the funds will go toward the reequipment of the Western Ukrainian Specialized Children's Medical Center, tweeted the embassy.