The Czech Republic has urged EU nations to join a new initiative for procuring ammunition for Ukraine.

This was stated by the Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, as reported by N-TV.

Currently, the Czech authorities are exploring various options for financing the new initiative to procure ammunition. Therefore, the exact number of rounds they will be able to provide will be announced later.

Jan Lipavský believes that this is a “matter of political will” and calls on other EU countries to join the initiative.

“If many EU member states join our initiative again, we can achieve a lot for Ukraine,” the minister said.

Czech Initiative

In February 2024, the Czech Republic announced that it had found sources for supplying hundreds of thousands of shells for Ukraine from abroad. Among the identified munitions are 500,000 shells of 155 mm caliber and another 300,000 shells of 122 mm caliber. Such stockpiles were discovered in a country outside the EU.

Subsequently, as part of the project, Prague discovered over a million munitions.

Approximately 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 procure ammunition for Ukraine.

The first munitions under the Czech initiative began to be supplied in June. According to the country’s government, about 1.5 million munitions were sent to Ukraine in 2024, one-third of which were of 155 mm caliber.

Czechia has pledged to continue the mechanism for purchasing shells for the Ukrainian army in 2025.