Two years after the start of the current Russian invasion, artillery ammunition is Ukraine’s most urgent need, Reuters reported, with both sides using heavy artillery fire to maintain largely static positions along a front line roughly 1,000 kilometers long.
Last month, German Defense Minister Pistorius announced an aid package to Ukraine in the amount of 478 million euros outside of the Czech munitions initiative. “So the total value of both support measures is over one billion euros,” a ministry spokesman told Reuters.
Sikorski: Poland will double its contribution to the Czech ammunition initiative for Ukraine
The war in Ukraine
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) came up with a proposal for the purchase of artillery ammunition for Ukraine outside the EU member states at an extraordinary EU summit in early February. President Petr Pavel later informed the Munich Security Conference about the possibility of purchasing 800,000 grenades for Ukrainians in third countries.
About twenty countries have joined the purchase so far, from Canada to Germany, Lithuania, Finland or the Netherlands and Luxembourg to Iceland. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told journalists in Brussels last week that Prague has so far received funds from its allies for the purchase of the first 300,000 units, and another 500,000 units are in question.
Czech National Security Adviser Tomáš Pojar told ČTK in mid-March that the first deliveries under the so-called Czech initiative should arrive in Ukraine in June at the latest. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský (Pirates) recently stated that he considers it realistic to get up to 1.5 million artillery shells as part of the initiative.
The Czech Republic is hardening. Ukraine wants to get 1.5 million artillery shells
Europe
Tags: Germany support Czech purchase ammunition Ukraine billion
