Prague leads initiative to raise $1.5 billion in emergency funds to finance ammunition purchase for Ukraine
European nations are racing to raise $1.5 billion in emergency funds to provide Ukraine with artillery shells from overseas to shore up the front lines against Russia as the full-scale war enters its third year, the Financial Times reported on Feb. 23.
The Czech Republic has taken the fundraising initiative to compensate for the congressional deadlock on US aid and delays in European production.
Read also: Canada may allocate $22 million to buy Czech artillery ammunition for Ukraine – report
The country needs its European partners to provide the $1.5 billion to finance the ammunition purchases, which Prague has been organizing since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to officials familiar with the discussions.
“The Czechs have done the work, but they need others (partners) to provide money,” an official said.
Kyiv needs 2.5 million artillery shells this year but the bloc has only sent 400,000 so far, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told his EU counterparts on Feb. 19, urging them to find a solution as soon as possible.
“The Ukrainians couldn’t care less where these shells come from, and who pays for them,” said one EU diplomat.
“We’re arguing over acronyms while they suffer on the front line.”
Ukrainian forces are already having to drastically ration artillery fire, making it harder for them to repel Russian assaults.
On Feb. 17, Czech President Petr Pavel said that Prague would 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.
“We have found half a million of 155-millimeter shells and 300 thousand shells of 122-millimeter caliber,” he said.
On the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused his partners of keeping Ukraine in an “artificial shortage of weapons,” particularly artillery and long-range weapons, allowing Russia to adapt to the intensity of fighting.
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.
On Feb. 7, EU High Representative/Vice-President (HR/VP) Josep Borrell said that the block is set to provide Ukraine with more than one million artillery shells by the end of 2024. Earlier, he admitted that by March the EU would fulfill only 52% of its promise to provide Ukraine with one million artillery shells.
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