The Czech Republic has found about 800,000 artillery shells that could be sent to the Ukrainian military, Czech President Petr Pavel said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on 17 February.
According to the Czech president, the country’s representatives managed to find about half a million 155 mm and 300,000 122 mm shells abroad, which can be shipped to Ukraine in a few weeks “if funding is found quickly.”
Pavel also mentioned Denmark, the Netherlands, and Canada, which provided resources to supply military equipment to the Czech Republic and then “quickly transport it to Ukraine.”
He also said that the Czech Republic will turn to partners from the United States, Germany, Sweden, and other countries that can help deploy the weaponry to Ukraine.
“We need to support Ukraine by supplying ammunition from all possible sources. We need to be as innovative and flexible as the Ukrainian soldiers and look for military equipment everywhere,” he explained.
Ukraine’s commander of the Tavria operational and strategic grouping of troops, Oleksandr Tarnavsky, said in December 2023 that the Ukrainian Armed Forces faced a shortage of artillery shells and “curtailed some military operations due to a lack of foreign assistance.”
According to Bloomberg, the lack of support from the United States may be felt by Ukrainian troops by the end of spring.
Recently, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, in a letter to the heads of the military departments of the European Union, said that Ukraine is experiencing a “critical” shortage of artillery shells. He explained that the Ukrainian Armed Forces can fire no more than 2,000 shells a day on the 1,500-kilometer-long front line. This is three times fewer shells than Russia uses, he said.
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