The Czech initiative to supply hundreds of thousands of shells to Ukraine requires additional funding, stated the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechia, Jan Lipavský.
According to him, everyone wants Ukraine to be able to defend itself against Russian aggression. Therefore, "more finances are needed" to supply ammunition to Ukraine.
"And we need more ammunition for Ukraine, because Russia is still able to produce much, much more than Ukraine can use on the battlefield. Unfortunately, this maths matters in wars," he said.
He reminded that about 20 countries have already promised to provide funds for the purchase of ammunition. This made it possible to pay for 300,000 artillery shells. However, Czechia is negotiating the purchase of another half a million.
Czech initiative
Czech President Petr Pavel announced that his country has identified around 800,000 artillery shells outside the European Union that could be transferred to Ukraine. However, according to him, funding is needed for this.
Following this, a number of Western countries began allocating funds for the purchase of ammunition, which is one of the main needs of Ukrainian defenders.
Recently, the Czech Foreign Minister stated that within the framework of the initiative, Ukraine could receive 1.5 million shells, not 800,000 as previously planned.
According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, our country expects that the first batch of ammunition will be provided to our defenders in April.