Prague says when first shells will arrive in Ukraine as part of Czech initiative

The first batches of artillery ammunition purchased at the initiative of the Czech Republic have already arrived in Ukraine and will start reaching the military at the end of the week. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavskyy said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.

He did not specify the volume of deliveries, but expressed hope that there would be more shells than planned by the initiators of the Czech initiative. According to him, there will be a lot of ammunition and it will be delivered to the Ukrainian defenders continuously.

Usually, donor countries have to announce that the agreements paid for by them have been fulfilled or at what stage they are at, but we do not specify the details," the Czech foreign minister said.

At the same time, he noted that five countries had already allocated funds for the purchase of shells for Ukraine - Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Canada - and the agreements financed by them are now in the process of implementation.

We need to move from promises and compassion to an agreement that will be signed and financed," he added.

Lipavskyy stressed that Ukraine needs a large amount of large calibre ammunition and expressed hope that many countries will join the initiative and continue funding it.

We will remind, in April 2024, the Czech Republic announced the creation of an initiative to purchase artillery shells for Ukraine in third countries. It was planned that 800 thousand ammunition would be purchased under the programme. The first batches of shells were expected to arrive in Ukraine in May, but there were delays. Now the allies are planning to make up for the time.

About 20 countries, including Canada, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain and Slovenia, have joined the Czech initiative to buy ammunition for Ukraine.