Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský stated that a Prague-led initiative which includes the purchase of approximately 800,000 artillery shells from outside the European Union is bearing fruit.

“We can do much more than the initially announced number,” Lipavský said, naming 1.5 million rounds as a potential volume, as reported by Bloomberg.

According to him, the Czech initiative on its own will not be sufficient to assist Ukraine, and funding for the initial deliveries is required before the goods are shipped.

“As we see, it already helps Ukraine to fight better, because they know that they will have a supply of fresh ammunition, which changed their perspective on usage of the current stockpiles,” the Foreign Minister said.

At the same time, he refused to specify how long deliveries to the front line would take.

Earlier, Czech President Petr Pavel stated that Prague was trying to deliver the ammunition to Ukraine as fast as possible.

Prior to that, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that based on the signals received by his government, Ukrainian military forces will soon get the ammunition supplies as part of the Czech initiative.

Tomáš Pojar, Advisor to Czech Prime Minister for National Security, stated earlier that the ammunition procured within the Czech initiative may be delivered to Ukraine as early as in June.

Czech President Petr Pavel announced at the Munich Security Conference that Czechia had found up to 800,000 NATO standard-calibre shells that could be sent to Ukraine within a few weeks if proper funding is found.

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