The Czech initiative to join efforts with other European countries and supply Ukraine with artillery ammunition was started in the early days of 2024, but the first batch has arrived only recently.
The fact was officially announced by Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, he noted that the first shells arrived "some time ago", although without specifying the exact number in this batch.
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The first shipment of ammunition from our initiative arrived in Ukraine some time ago. We are doing what it takes.— Petr Fiala (@P_Fiala) June 25, 2024
Despite the impression that the whole process has been done at the maximum speed possible, it did not happen without an issue: as of March, there were already three different official statements regarding the time frame of the anticipated first delivery. The President of Czechia Petr Pavel said the ammunition would arrive within a few weeks if everything goes according to plan. Then, Prime Minister Petr Fiala noted it would take months, followed by the statement from Czech national security advisor Tomáš Pojar that the shells will start arriving in June.
Later in May, President Petr Pavel had to reassess the deadline and confirmed that the boxes laden with artillery ammunition are set to come in June and stated the quantity expected within this first provision — 180,000 rounds, he explained the delay with security concerns, since such a logistic operation needs to be done in strict secrecy.
The Ukrainian side also expected 180,000 shells, according to Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal who said late May that €1.6 billion had already been gathered thanks to the commitments of almost 20 countries from the European Union and NATO, including Canada, Germany, Denmark, and more — although only part of them have already sent the pledged money for the procurements of artillery rounds from countries outside Europe, as the initiative suggests.
However, even regarding the number of shells, the officials are inconsistent in their statements. Jan Lipavský, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, mentioned a more moderate quantity of ammunition the allies can provide, that is, 50,000 to 100,000 shells per month.
Be it 50,000 or 180,000, the addition to Ukraine's arsenal is nonetheless significant. The real issue is time, and now we can assess how much of this resource it took to arrange the first batch for delivery. The contract with an unspecified donor was announced in mid-April, which makes almost three months to bring the crucial supplies to the Ukrainian Armed Forces — a fairly quick operation considering the current realities.
On a final note, this is only the beginning of a long-term project encompassing multiple contracts with third parties on the supply of ammunition for Ukraine's sake. Simultaneously with the mentioned operations, in April this year, an agreement for 300,000 more shells was already being negotiated. The total number of artillery rounds the allies seek to gather is 0.8 to 1.5 million, stretched in batches arriving through 2024.
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