Czech initiative: Pavel reveals when Ukraine gets first shell batch

Photo: President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel (Getty Images)

The first batch of 180,000 rounds of ammunition purchased under the Czech initiative may be delivered to Ukraine as early as June. In the future, deliveries of much larger volumes are planned, Czech President Petr Pavel states in an interview on the German TV channel ARD.

According to him, the more parties know about the ammunition initiative, the more competition there is. In his opinion, on the one hand, it was necessary to talk about the initiative to gain the support of other countries, but on the other hand, they also revealed their cards, which Russia is now taking advantage of.

He claims that this is another reason why the initiative is not moving as fast as we would like. Together with Prime Minister Petr Fiala, they assume that the first 180,000 units of ammunition will be delivered in June, and there are already contracts for a further five- to six-figure number of shells.

The Czech President also noted that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has faced extraordinary difficulties and demonstrated remarkable resilience.

According to him, Russia is much stronger than Ukraine, and the West supports Ukraine technically and financially. However, Pavel added, they are approaching a point where human resources and support among the Ukrainian population would increasingly become limiting factors.

The President says that in this situation it is important to support Ukraine in every way possible so that it can make it clear to the Russian aggressor that there is no point in continuing the war, and that Russia will not achieve any further military success. Because as long as Russia has any hope of success, it has no reason to conduct peace negotiations.

Czech initiative on shells for Ukraine

In 2023, Petr Pavel announced the readiness of Prague and a number of European countries to provide Ukraine with 800,000 artillery shells. The necessary funds had to be raised to purchase the ammunition.

In addition to the Czech Republic, the initiative was supported by Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, and other countries. Almost all the necessary funds were raised in early March.

According to media reports, Ukraine will receive more shells than expected under the Czech initiative.