Czech ammo initiative loses half its donors — FT
Czech President Petr Pavel (Photo: REUTERS/Michele Tantussi)
After a change in government in Czechia,
the number of countries contributing to the Czech-led initiative to buy
artillery ammunition for Ukraine has fallen by half, President Petr Pavel told
the Financial
Times on May 26.
Pavel said that while 18 countries participated last year, only nine continue to make financial contributions now. He said that raises concerns about an uneven distribution of the financial burden.
“This initiative has been delivering up to 50 per cent of all large caliber ammunition to the Ukrainians, so in this sense it cannot be replaced easily by anything else,” the FT quoted the Czech president.
Pavel did not specify which countries stopped participating. An unnamed Western military official quoted by the Financial Times said Germany and some Scandinavian countries remain involved.
The official suggested some partners find it odd to fund the initiative when it does not have robust backing from the leading country’s political leadership. During his election campaign, Czech PM Andrej Babis criticized the initiative and suggested it might be scrapped, citing what he called insufficient transparency in how funds were used. The government later abandoned plans to withdraw from the program.
Babis told the Financial Times the government is focusing first on domestic needs, including support for citizens facing higher electricity costs after the war in Iran.
Michal Strnad, chief executive of the Czech defense company
Czechoslovak Group, said the initiative is still operating but has slowed. He
said it is too early to tell whether the slowdown will affect the volume of
supplies to Ukraine because some countries have begun buying shells directly
from manufacturers or other suppliers.
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