The Czech initiative is coming to fruition. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Tuesday that twenty countries had committed to buying half a million shells for Ukraine outside Europe.
The Czech Republic has initiated an international fundraising operation aimed at buying ammunition for the Ukrainian army, which is lacking in its war against Russia. EU countries had committed to supplying Kiev with one million shells before the end of last March, but they were unable, due to a lack of sufficient production capacity, to deliver them. Prague, however, assured that it had identified significant stocks of shells, for a total of some 800,000 pieces, available for purchase outside the European continent.
“I am pleased that currently around 20 countries have joined our initiative, from Canada to Poland, Germany and the Netherlands,” said Petr Fiala during a visit to Washington . “Thanks to them, we are able to provide 500,000 shells. We believe that other deliveries will follow.” He had previously indicated that the first deliveries could take place in June.
One million additional shells per year
The countries participating in this initiative also include the Baltic States, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and Slovenia, the Czech press reported. According to the head of the Czech government, there is no reason why donor countries should not be able to “provide an additional million shells over the next twelve months”.
According to the Financial Times, purchasing these 800,000 shells would cost $1.5 billion. But Tomas Kopecny, Czech Commissioner for the reconstruction of Ukraine, estimated on Czech radio on Tuesday that it could cost twice as much.