Czech Republic found hundreds of thousands of artillery munitions abroad that could be transferred to Ukraine
Czechia will be able to transfer the ammunition for Ukraine “in a matter of weeks” if the United States, Germany, Sweden and other countries help with funding, President Petr Pavel said during the Munich Security Conference, as quoted by Czech outlet iRozhlas on Feb. 17.
“We have found half a million of 155-millimeter shells and 300 thousand shells of 122-millimeter caliber,” he said.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov wrote a letter to his EU counterparts, noting that Russian troops outnumber the Ukrainian Armed Forces by three to one, and shortage of weapons in Ukraine is getting worse every day.
Umerov called for the delivery of the promised one million artillery shells, which the EU pledged to provide to Ukraine within one year in the spring of 2023.
The letter also states that Ukraine needs 200 thousand 155-mm shells per month. At the same time, the Russian army can receive almost twice as much ammunition, and Russia has received about a million shells from North Korea.
On Jan. 11 European Commission spokeswoman Johanna Bernsel said that the EU will be able to produce one million rounds of ammunition for Ukraine only by the end of winter 2024.
On Jan. 31, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that by March the EU would fulfill only 52% of its promise to provide Ukraine with one million artillery shells.
On Feb. 3, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote that the shortage of artillery and delays in Western aid would create uncertainty in Ukraine’s operational plans and could likely force Ukrainian troops to make difficult decisions about prioritizing certain areas of the front over those where territorial losses would be less significant.
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