The Czech Republic organizes the collection of ammunition for Ukraine

The Czech Republic provides 800,000 pieces of ammunition to Ukraine, mainly from the developing countries and economic expansion of the southern hemisphere. Prague's action is financially supported by about 20 countries, including Germany.

The Czech Republic has undertaken an initiative to purchase 800,000 pieces of artillery ammunition for Ukraine. This is intended to support Ukraine in the defensive war against Russia, until the capacities of European and Ukrainian weapons factories are strengthened, in order to supply this country with enough ammunition. ammunition, but so far it has not been able to keep this promise.

The Czech initiative officially began on February 20 at the Munich Security Conference, where Czech President Petr Pavel, former chairman of NATO's Military Commission, declared that Ukraine urgently needs artillery and other munitions – and that the Czech Republic knows that where they can be provided. "We were able to locate half a million pieces of ammunition of caliber 155 millimeters and 300,000 pieces of ammunition of caliber 122", declared Pavel at the conference. He added that the Czech Republic can provide ammunition, but asks other countries to participate financially in this action.

Pavel spoke on behalf of the entire Czech political community. "It is urgently necessary to supply Ukraine with ammunition, and we must find all possible ways to make this happen," Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Drake confirmed the Czech government's initiative.

There are no official details

At the end of February, Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada joined the action of the Czech Republic, and after a month there are a total of 20 NATO countries, including Germany and France, that support this initiative.

The Czech government has not officially informed about the action, this in the first place in order not to give Russia the opportunity to prevent the purchase of ammunition in countries where the Kremlin also has contacts and influence. The news portal Aktualne.cz claims, however, that at least ten Czech arms firms are involved in the action and their contacts with southern hemisphere countries actively participate in this action to buy ammunition.

Former Czechoslovakia at the time of real-socialism was among the ten largest arms exporters in the world. Although arms exports in the 1990s were significantly reduced, part of the arms industry was preserved. Even today, the Czech Republic produces and exports a variety of weapons, from fighter jets to small arms. In 2023, weapons worth 1.2 billion euros were exported from the Czech Republic.

Armaments enterprises in the Czech Republic have many contacts with developing countries. Now this country is using these contacts to buy ammunition for Ukraine.

Stabilization at the front

The Czech initiative comes at a time when the approval of the military aid package for Ukraine in the US has been suspended due to Republican resistance. Even European armaments enterprises are unable to supply Ukraine with ammunition in the required quantities, which has more to do with slow increases in the growth of production capacities.

According to experts, Russia has five times more ammunition and heavy weapons at the front than Ukraine. The fact that the town of Avdijivka near Donetsk fell to the Russians in the first place has to do with this armament disproportion.

It is feared that Russia in the spring may try to break the front through a major offensive. The ammunition provided by the Czech Republic aims precisely to prevent such a thing./ DW