War in Ukraine: About twenty countries joined the Czech Republic to purchase 500 thousand shells outside Europe

The Czech initiative is being implemented. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Tuesday that twenty countries had pledged to purchase half a million shells for Ukraine outside Europe.

The Czech Republic has launched an international fundraising operation aimed at purchasing ammunition for the Ukrainian army, which is in short supply in the war against Russia. EU countries pledged to supply Kyiv with one million shells by the end of March last year, but were unable to deliver them due to the lack of sufficient production capacity. Prague, however, assured that it had discovered significant reserves of shells, totaling about 800,000 pieces, which could be purchased outside the European continent.

“I am glad that about 20 countries have now joined our initiative, from Canada to Poland, Germany and the Netherlands,” said Petr Fiala during a visit to Washington. “Thanks to them, we can provide 500 thousand shells. We believe that other deliveries will follow.” He 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 countries, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and Slovenia, the Czech press reports. According to the head of the Czech government, there is no reason why donor countries could not “provide an additional million shells over the next twelve months.”

According to the Financial Times, purchasing these 800,000 shells will cost $1.5 billion. But Tomas Kopecny, the Czech commissioner for the reconstruction of Ukraine, said on Czech radio on Tuesday that it could cost twice as much.