Czechia has been supplying Ukraine with weapons since day one of Russia’s invasion
Action in Prague on the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine (Photo:REUTERS/David W Cerny)
Czechia has been providing weapons to Ukraine since the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, Czech journalist Ondrej Soukup told Radio NV on March 24.
"The then Ukrainian ambassador to the Czech Republic, Yevhen Perebyinis, who is now the deputy foreign minister, recalled that on the first day of the war, the Czech deputy defense minister came to him with a 10 cm-thick folder and said: ‘We were afraid that something like this would happen, so we made a complete list of weapons that the Czech army has. Here, please, choose from it. We will try to send it to you as soon as possible’," Soukup told Radio NV.
“So, all the weapons, especially the Soviet-made ones they had, are actually already in Ukraine.”
He added that it is now necessary to produce new weapons and ammunition.
By the end of Feb. 2023, the Czech Defense Ministry reported that it had sent to Ukraine the following weapons since Feb. 2022:
- 5 chemical reconnaissance vehicles
- 47 vehicles
- 27,518 artillery rounds
- 12 grenade launchers
- 4,900 rockets for rocket launchers
- 8,022 armored vehicles
- 128 mortars
- 17,400 mines
- 291 anti-aircraft guns
- 30,025 pistols
- 11,233 long-range small-arms shells
- 4,000,000+ rounds of ammunition for small-arms
Czechia is among the top five countries in terms of aid to Ukraine.
Czechia has also provided military medical equipment, radiation, chemical and biological protection equipment, military vehicles, and spare parts.
In early March 2023, Czech Ambassador to Ukraine Radek Matula told Radio NV that his country had provided Ukrainian defenders with training and equipment worth approximately $445 million, and another $1.34 billion worth of materiel was supplied to Ukraine under licenses issued to Czech manufacturers of military equipment and ammunition.
Half a million Ukrainian refugees have fled to the Czech Republic, which has a population of 10.5 million.
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