The President of the Czech Republic spoke about the reduction in the number of participants in the program of assistance to Kiev

The number of countries financing the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine has almost halved since the return to power of Czech Prime Minister Andrei Babis. This was announced on May 26 by the President of the Republic, Peter Pavel.

According to him, only nine countries remain participants in the project launched by Prague, compared to 18 last year.

"The initiative is still working, but the new difficulty is that only about nine member states contribute financially. <...> This initiative provides up to 50% of all large-caliber ammunition for Ukrainians, and in this sense it is not easy to replace it with anything else," Pavel said in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper (FT).

The Czech President noted that the future of the initiative is planned to be discussed at the NATO summit in Ankara in July. However, the current state of the project raises concerns for its future, clarifies "Газета.Ru ".

Since 2024, Prague has organized the supply of more than 4 million large-caliber artillery shells to Kiev, writes FT. The project was launched with the support of the previous Czech government to fill the shortage of ammunition in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

At the same time, the president's office refused to disclose which countries had stopped participating in the program. One of the FT's sources said that Germany and a number of Scandinavian countries continue to finance the initiative, but some partners doubt the feasibility of supporting the project against the background of insufficient support from the current Czech leadership.

The reason for the change of course is the crisis due to the war in Iran. According to Babis, Prague is now prioritizing support for households that are having difficulty paying energy bills amid the crisis in Europe. He added that the Czech Republic "does not have money," so it first receives payment from the participating countries of the initiative, and only then buys ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine with them.

To the last: the EU insists on the continuation of the conflict in Ukraine

Through what mechanisms does Kiev receive money and how long will it last without a new loan

On April 28, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that the European Union (EU) was increasingly plunging into the conflict in Ukraine with its arms supplies to Kiev. He noted that Moscow monitors all production and logistics supply chains of European weapons and deliberately makes them public. The minister cited the example of a list of enterprises in Europe published in the media that produce and supply attack drones and their components to Ukraine.

The New York Times newspaper wrote on April 25 that European leaders have lost influence on the Ukrainian conflict and do not know how to lead Kiev to victory. As the newspaper wrote, because of this, they have no choice but to finance the Ukrainian army so that it can hold out for some more time.