Android: how to supply thousands of pre saved images with a new app?

I am new to Android development and trying to develop an app with information on collectibles.

In short: the app contains information on thousands of collectible items, each with its own information and properties. For this I want to set up a pre filled SQLITE database containing all the information. However each item also has an image connected to it.

The app will contain a listview showing all the items of a certain category (max 2k items per category). Each listview item will have some basic information like Title, Short description and a thumbnail.

The problem is now, that I don't know which is the correct way to handle the images. Searching the internet I already concluded that I should not add the images themselves to the database, which makes sense. I do know I can add images to the resources/drawable folders, but having thousands and thousands of images added here, does not feel as the correct way.

If I want to save paths of the images into the database (which is pre filled), where should I save all the images, so they are accessible with the newly shipped app?

Thank you in advance.