Czechia’s plan to coordinate the supply of ammunition for Ukraine from outside the EU has reportedly secured 800,000 pieces of ammunition.

The plan was first discussed by President Petr Pavel at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, where he said that “we have identified half a million pieces of 155-millimetre calibre ammunition and 300,000 pieces of 122-millimetre calibre ammunition”.

Pavel also said then that the Czech Ministry of Defence and Czech weaponry companies have extensive contacts worldwide and a good sense of ammunition and machinery availability, which had allowed them to locate the spare ammunition, which “for political reasons” the supplying countries won’t be able to deliver themselves.

Czech liberal daily DenikN wrote this week that the value of the 800,000 pieces of ammunition located worldwide is CZK35bn (€1.4bn), though it could be higher.

At the recent Paris summit of European nations on Ukraine, France and the Netherlands agreed to help finance the shipments. Canada and Denmark both expressed readiness to back the project earlier. Prime Minister Petr Fiala said 15 countries had agreed to help.

DenikN also wrote that “800,000 pieces of ammunition is an amount which can feed Ukrainian artillery along the whole length of the front for a period of several months” and refers to other estimates saying a period of at least a quarter of a year.

Ukraine is capable of firing up to 12,000 pieces a day, according to an earlier statement by Minister of Defence Oleksiy Reznikov.

DenikN also quotes the Czech envoy for the reconstruction of Ukraine, Tomas Kopecny, and a source close to Prime Minister Petr Fiala, both of whom said that the current plan had been underway for about “half a year”.

“We are happy to show other states a direction, and we hope that our alliance will be joined by other states when Mr. President said it in public”, Kopecny was quoted as saying.   

Kopecny said that other states agreed to participate financially, which Czechia cannot secure on its own, following Pavel’s comments at the Munich Security Conference.

“Once we secure the financing, it [the delivery] should be within several weeks, at most in lower tens of weeks”, Kopecny also said, adding that the coordination plan is “a common work of the Czech state and Czech companies”.

Kopecny mentioned Czech weaponry companies Czechoslovak Group (CSG) and STV.

Ukraine has been suffering heavy losses at the front in the east and southeast of the country this year, which analysts attribute to shortages in military supplies.

Vojtech Bohac, editor of the Czech outlet Voxpot, who is near the frontline, described the mood in the Kharkiv region on his X/Twitter account as “gloomy”, reporting that the number of ambulances in action is comparable only to last year when the bloody battle of Bakhmut was raging.

A Czech volunteer in the region told bne Intellinews “many Ukrainians are dying” because “they are saving ammunition which we [Europeans] have been promising to them”.