No reason not to supply 1.5 million artillery shells to Ukraine in one year – Czech PM
Pravda Ukraine
A Czech initiative to source ammunition for Ukraine could provide Kyiv with 1.5 million artillery shells within a year.
Source: European Pravda, citing Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala at the Hudson Institute in Washington
Details: According to the text of Fiala’s speech, which has been published by the Czech government, Prague could provide Kyiv with as many as 500,000 rounds of ammunition as part of its initiative.
“We believe that more deliveries will follow. There is no reason why we cannot deliver one million more in the next 12 months,” Fiala said.
Fiala also stressed that this initiative is not a one-off project.
“Our goal is to create a long-term system of ammunition supplies for heavy weapons. This will directly help to change the situation on the front line,” he said.
At the same time, he noted that this could not be the ultimate goal of Western countries, which must have sufficient defence industry capacity once again.
“We need to accept the fact that a more responsible security policy also includes a large increase in the number of weapons. I believe that our initiative can simply cover the ammunition gap. At least until Europe can produce enough ammunition,” Fiala stressed.
Background:
- The day before, Czech President Petr Pavel hailed the fact that the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine, which has been resisting full-scale Russian aggression for more than two years, has gained such momentum.
- Pavel’s comments came as Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced that Prague has already signed contracts to supply 180,000 artillery rounds for Ukraine as part of its initiative and is currently working on contracts for another 300,000 rounds.
- In total, Czechia has identified more than a million pieces of artillery ammunition worldwide that could be purchased for Ukraine outside of Europe.
- Tomáš Pojár, National Security Advisor to the Czech Prime Minister, said the ammunition purchased under the Czech initiative could arrive in Ukraine as early as June.
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