Within a few weeks
The Czech Republic wants to procure 800,000 rounds of ammunition for Ukraine
February 20, 2024, 6:29 p.m
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The Ukrainian troops are suffering massively from a lack of artillery ammunition – but the Europeans are not even close to achieving their own production targets. However, the Czech Republic is now finding other rich sources of ammunition.
The Czech Republic wants to procure 800,000 rounds of artillery ammunition for Ukraine within a few weeks. Czech government circles confirm this to the “Tagesspiegel”. President Petr Pavel has located the urgently needed ammunition in third countries and is in talks with Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada to finance the purchase.
As a former NATO general, Pavel has a global military network of contacts. He had already said at the Munich Security Conference: “We have identified half a million rounds of 155 millimeter caliber and 300,000 rounds of 122 millimeter caliber, which we can deliver within a few weeks if we secure financing quickly.”
Pavel is now making progress with financing, those around him confirmed to the paper. For diplomatic reasons, the politician does not reveal where the 800,000 shots will be purchased. According to a report by the “Kyiv Independent” it concerns Turkey, South Korea and South Africa.
Lack of ammunition causes retreat
“The lack of artillery ammunition is currently Ukraine’s biggest problem,” says Gustav Gressel, military expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Berlin, to the “Tagesspiegel”. It was only at the weekend that Ukraine had to withdraw from the strategically important city of Avdiivka due to a lack of ammunition.
The rapid procurement of hundreds of thousands of rounds would be “the solution to this problem” and “the salvation of Ukraine in its efforts to hold the front,” said Gressel. In the case of South Korea and South Africa, however, such a procurement would have to take place as a ring exchange, as their political guidelines do not allow them to deliver directly to Ukraine. The European Union recently had to admit that it will not achieve its self-imposed goal in the production and delivery of artillery ammunition.