Production in EU has not yet accelerated. Czech initiative will be continued in 2025, they have already found lots of shells for Ukraine - Lipavsky
Ukraine will need ammunition in 2025, so the so-called Czech initiative will continue.
This was stated by Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky in an interview with Yevropeiska Pravda, answering the question what will happen to the Czech initiative, which helps to purchase ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in third countries, Censor.NET reports.
"Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, together with the Prime Minister of Denmark and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, have already agreed to continue this in 2025 <...> For 2025, we have already found a large number of already manufactured ammunition around the world that can be purchased for the Armed Forces," he said, adding that Ukraine will also need shells next year.
Speaking about ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces this year, the Czech minister assured that everything that was planned would be done.
"This year we have promised that in case of sufficient international support we will purchase and transfer half a million large-caliber ammunition to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And we will fulfill it," Lipavsky said.
The Czech foreign minister could not say exactly how many shells have been transferred and how many more will be transferred, but his colleagues responsible for the scheme assured him that the required figure will be reached by the end of 2024.
The Czech minister also said that a significant portion of the ammunition is coming from warehouses.
"Given the fact that defense production in the EU has not yet ramped up, we have found stockpiles of shells around the world and are buying them," the Czech Foreign Minister said.
According to him, some of the shells are restored to make sure they are in working order, and then sent to Ukraine.
