STOCKHOLM: Norway will donate 1.6 billion Norwegian kroner ($153 million) to a Czech-led effort to purchase Ammunition for Ukraine in third countries, Reuters reports Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store as saying.
“Ukraine urgently requires significant quantities of artillery ammunition to counter Russian aggression,” Store stated.
During the Munich Security Conference on February 17, Czech President Petr Pavel announced Prague’s plan to procure hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds for Ukraine if funds were secured.
In response to the European Union’s failure to fulfill its commitment to supply Kyiv with one million rounds from March 2023 to March 2024, the Czech Republic called for the EU to begin procuring munitions for Ukraine in third countries, including Turkey, South Africa, and South Korea, according to Politico.
Czech Governmental Envoy for the Reconstruction of Ukraine Tomas Kopecny announced on March 4 that Belgium, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States had joined the Czech initiative.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte assured her Czech counterpart, Petr Fiala, of Vilnius’s support for Prague’s initiative. Kopecny stated plans to purchase at least 800,000 munitions, with the possibility of the figure changing.
