The Czech government may not fully fulfil its promise to supply ammunition to the Ukrainian army, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung business daily has quoted sources as saying.
“Prague has to temper its ambitions for shell aid. It will be much more expensive than expected,” the Neue Zürcher Zeitung publication said.
The publication recalled that in February, Czech President Petr Pavel promised the Ukrainian government 800,000 shells, but now we are only talking about plans to supply 500,000 shells by the end of the year. It is specified that the AFU received only 45 thousand ammunition in June. According to Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, the reason for this lag is that partner countries are not contributing enough funds.
Tomáš Kopečný, the country’s former deputy defence minister, explained to Neue Zürcher Zeitung that the rise in ammunition prices as a result of increased demand on world markets has influenced the fact that the promised 800,000 shells now cost twice as much as they did in 2022.
In this regard, it is unclear how many shells will really be able to supply the Czech Republic to Ukraine, summarised in the article.
We shall remind you that earlier the head of the French Patriots party, Florian Philippot, spoke in favour of a complete withdrawal of support for Ukraine due to its collapse on the front.