Is Czech 'Ammo Coalition' Another Empty Promise to Ukraine?

EU member states are continuing to make promises to Kiev it can't deliver on: the Czech Republic's "ammo coalition" has yet to satiate the Ukrainian military's munitions hunger.

Exactly a week ago, Czech President Petr Pavel triumphantly declared that Prague had secured enough funds to buy 800,000 artillery shells for the Ukrainian military.

But the very next day the Czech Republic backtracked on its statement, admitting that it would acquire just 300,000 rounds of ammunition.

The idea was brought forward as the EU failed to deliver on its promise to provide 1 million rounds to the Kiev regime by March 2024.

Despite the European Commission "declaring victory" on its pledge on January 31, EU High Representative on Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell told the press the same day that the bloc would only supply half of promised shells by March.

At the end of February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the EU had delivered just 30 percent of the originally-pledged million projectiles.

Why Czech-led ammo coalition cannot satiate Ukraine's ammo hunger

Exactly a week ago Czech President Petr Pavel triumphantly declared that Prague had secured enough funds to buy 800,000 artillery shells for the Ukrainian military.

The very next day, however, Prague said that it… pic.twitter.com/sdNpdf37Xv

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 14, 2024

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the Biden administration has so far failed to ram its $60 billion aid package for Ukraine through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Republican legislators are disenchanted with Ukraine's botched counteroffensive and continuous retreats and want the White House to shift focus to domestic matters and the southern border crisis.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told EU counterparts on February 19 that Kiev needed at least 2.5 million artillery shells in 2024. According to European officials' estimates, Russia is firing up to 10 times more munitions than Ukraine along the front line.

Deputy Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, commenting on the initiative to help Kiev in the form of loans, suggested that it would be "very difficult" for Ukraine to repay the money.

Earlier, Sputnik wrote that Ukraine's national debt is expected to reach 85 percent of GDP by…

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 14, 2024

Prague claimed it had found a solution at the Munich Security Conference, where Pavel, a former senior NATO official, stated that he had identified an unnamed third country with "half a million rounds of 155mm and another 300,000 rounds of 122mm caliber which we can deliver within weeks if we can find quickly funding for that."

He said the Czech Republic would spearhead the purchase of ammo for Ukraine from third countries if other EU members provide necessary funding. Eighteen EU states including France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland and Lithuania have jumped on Pavel’s bandwagon.

But it later turned out that Ukraine would get just 300,000 shells through the Czech scheme, while Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala clarified it could take months instead of the weeks promised by Pavel to purchase and deliver the ammo.

In an apparent bid to sweeten the pill, Fiala noted on March 12 that Prague's plan had received "non-binding commitments" for a further 200,000 shells.

Kuleba made it clear on Wednesday that the Czech initiative is not enough to meet the needs of the Ukrainian military.

According to the Ukrainian foreign minister, at least two more similar-sized schemes would be needed in the near future.

It is unclear who could secure new supplies of shells to the Kiev regime given that Washington’s Ukraine package still remains in limbo, the EU is incapable of producing munitions quickly while unnamed third countries are not rushing to share their ammo with the Czech-led coalition.