Czechia purchased new package of ammunition for Ukraine

President of Czechia, Petr Pavel (photo: GettyImages)

President of Czechia, Petr Pavel, announced that the country has purchased artillery ammunition for Ukraine, reports Ceske Noviny.

President Pavel stated last week that Czechia has already identified over a million units of ammunition that can be purchased for Ukraine from countries outside the EU. Previously, he mentioned a figure of 800,000 units. According to him, efforts to secure funds and partners for this purpose are ongoing.

“I think this reflects the fact that everyone is aware of a certain debt regarding the promised support for Ukraine when the European Union pledged to deliver a million units by March of this year. Unfortunately, this did not happen,” he said.

According to The Financial Times, the purchase of 800,000 units of ammunition is estimated to cost $1.5 billion (about 60 billion UAH).

The government’s agent for Ukraine’s recovery, Tomáš Kopečný, announced today on Czech radio Plus that the purchase amount would be around three billion dollars.

“I cannot say the exact amount because, first and foremost, these are price movements, this is the market, but more or less, it is roughly twice as much as reported by the Financial Times, that is, around three billion dollars,” Kopečný said.

Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura stated today on Czech television that Czechia’s financial contribution to the purchase of ammunition would range from 500 million to one billion crowns.

“This is an amount that corresponds to the size of Czechia and the indicators of the Czech economy,” he added.

Aid from Czechia to Ukraine

Earlier, we reported that Czechia has signed contracts to purchase 180,000 shells for further transfer to Ukraine. The country plans to contract hundreds of thousands more ammunition.

We also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed with Czech President Petr Pavel in Vilnius the strengthening of defense cooperation.