The government of the Czech Republic has approved the allocation of money for its own initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine outside the European Union. The amount is unknown.
This was reported by the Prime Minister of the country Petr Fiala, Czech media Novinky reports.
According to him, almost 20 countries have already joined the ammunition initiative, because they understand that this is the only way to deliver the necessary shells to Ukraine in a short time.
"It is extremely important for Ukraine to know that additional ammunition will arrive within weeks or months and be able to adapt its tactics accordingly," the prime minister added.
The Czech Republic is looking for ammunition
In February, the president of the Czech Republic announced that his country, in cooperation with Canada and Denmark , had found 500 000 155-mm ammunition and 300 000 122-mm shells, which can be delivered within a few weeks if the necessary funds are available. The Financial Times wrote that Prague planned to raise $1.5 billion to pay for the ammunition and asked allies to help.
The Netherlands (€250 million), Belgium (€200 million), Norway (€140 million), Portugal (€100 million), Lithuania (€35 million), Finland (€30 million) publicly volunteered to allocate money. Almost a quarter of the ammunition — 180 000 — agreed to be financed by Germany. The United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Denmark, Latvia and Poland will contribute or have already contributed, but their amounts are unknown.
On March 8, the Czech Republic announced that it had collected funds for 300,000 ammunition. The first shells are promised to be delivered to Ukraine by June.
On March 26, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavskyi said that Ukraine could receive 1.5 million projectiles under the Czech initiative, instead of 800 000, as originally planned.
- Poland has decided to double its contribution to the Czech Republicʼs initiative to purchase ammunition for the needs of the Armed Forces.