NATO|Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský confirms that Ukraine will receive the first deliveries of ammunition under the Czech Ammunition Initiative in June. However, many countries have not yet delivered the funding they promised for the project.
Prague
The Czech Republic foreign minister Jan Lipavsky confirms that Ukraine will receive the first ammunition deliveries under the Czech Ammunition Initiative very soon in June.
Lipavský commented on the issue in connection with NATO’s informal meeting of foreign ministers in Prague.
According to the Czech Republic, the ammunition initiative’s funding and commitments are sufficient to deliver 500,000 artillery shells to Ukraine this year.
Prime minister of the country Peter Fiala told during the meeting, according to Reuters, that a total of 1.6 billion euros in funding has been received for the project.
Ammunition initiative was launched earlier this year and with it ammunition will be procured for Ukraine from outside Europe. The background is that Europe’s own production has not been sufficient. The goal has been to acquire 800,000 artillery shells for Ukraine.
15 countries have committed to the initiative.
Speaking to journalists in Prague, the Czech ambassador focusing on the reconstruction of Ukraine Tomáš Kopečný said, however, that only five countries have delivered the funding for the project in accordance with their promises.
The main reason for this is the pace and political will of the countries’ internal processes, he estimates.
“The only major country in Europe that has stood behind its expressed commitment financially is Germany,” Kopečný said.
Other countries that provided funding are the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark and Portugal. Ten other countries are still working on it. It can be, for example, parliamentary processes or budget processes.
“Transferring the money is taking longer than we expected,” Kopečný said.
He made it clear that the amount of funding is important, among other things, because it can in some cases affect whether Ukraine or Russia will get the necessary war supplies from the market.
“If there is enough money to make an advance payment faster than on the Russian side, then that is it [kauppa] goes to Ukraine’s side. If it happens more slowly, sometimes it goes to the Russian side. When the money is not in the account, you cannot make an advance payment, it’s very simple.”
Finland told earlier this yearthat it will contribute 30 million euros to the Czech ammunition initiative.
Kopency cited the amount of ammunition Ukraine needs as another challenge related to the initiative.
Roughly estimated, the need would be 200,000 artillery shells per month, and this would require a very large amount of funding.
Foreign minister Lipavský said that the Czech Republic uses every opportunity to remind the countries of their commitments.
He did not comment specifically on how the initiative’s ammunition could be used.
In recent days, there has been a lively discussion in the NATO countries about whether Ukraine can use the weaponry given to it also for attacks on the Russian side. There have been different approaches to this among the NATO countries.
Lipavský said that the Czech Republic itself has no problem with Ukraine defending itself against an aggressor.
NATO foreign ministers gathered on Thursday for a two-day informal meeting in Prague.
The agenda includes, among other things, a discussion about what can be promised to Ukraine at the Washington summit in the summer.
The foreign minister from Finland will participate in the meeting Elina Valtonen (cook).
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