Ukraine got 4.4 million large-calibre rounds under Czech initiative, president says

PRAGUE, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Ukraine has received 4.4 million rounds of large-calibre ammunition under a plan pulling together Czech arms traders and producers and funding from foreign donors, President Petr Pavel told a Czech news website in an interview.

Pavel has been a strong backer of the scheme which includes Czech defence officials and defence firms sourcing 155mm and other large-calibre ammunition around the world, purchasing it and shipping to Ukraine with funds from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and other donors. 

The new Czech government of Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ populist ANO party, including the pro-Russian far-right SPD, had considered scrapping the initiative but agreed under pressure from Pavel and allies to continue the plan, although it said it would not give any national funding for the purchases.  

“Since its launch the initiative has brought about 4.4 million pieces of large-calibre ammunition to Ukraine,” Pavel, a former senior NATO official, told the odkryto.cz website.

“Without this ammunition reserve, Ukraine’s armed forces could not effectively lead defence.”

Pavel said nearly 2 million rounds were delivered last year. That number is slightly above NATO’s December estimate of 1.8 million.

Donors have given billions of euros to the scheme in the past two years, Czech officials have said.

A NATO official said last week that more was needed, with commitments at 1.4 billion euros versus 5 billion euro target.

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Kate Mayberry)