WASHINGTON -- Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on April 16 that 20 countries had pledged enough money to buy 500,000 artillery shells under the Czech Republic's international fundraising drive to buy badly needed ammunition for the Ukrainian Army.
"I am glad that at this moment about 20 countries already joined our initiative -- from Canada, Germany and [from] the Netherlands to Poland," Fiala said in a speech in Washington.
"Thanks to them we can provide around 500,000 rounds of artillery ammunition. We believe that more deliveries will follow."
Ukraine has been pleading for its Western allies to supply more ammunition as troops on the battlefield run short with Russian forces outfiring them at a rate of about five-to-one.
The supply is dwindling, the top U.S. military commander in Europe told Congress last week, and the rate will go to 10-to-one in a matter of weeks.
European Union members promised 1 million artillery shells by the end of March, but their production capacities are limited and the countries fell short of delivering.
The Czech government then announced it would collect a substantial amount of shells -- some 800,000 in total -- for Ukraine from third countries outside the European Union.
Speaking at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, Fiala said there was no reason why the 20 donor countries in the next 12 months could not help deliver 1 million more beyond the 500,000 already covered.
"I want to highlight that this initiative is not a onetime project. Our goal is to create a long-term system of ammunition supplies for heavy weapons. This will directly help to change the situation on the front line," he added.
The initiative can help cover Ukraine's ammunition needs at least until Europe's own defense industries can produce enough ammunition, he said.
Fiala didn’t include details on the amount of money pledged to acquire artillery shells, but Tomas Kopecny, Czech commissioner for the reconstruction of Ukraine, told Czech Radio on April 16 that the sum was roughly $3 billion.
The Czech prime minister also said that for too long many European countries took their security for granted, which led to very low spending on defense. The situation is completely different now, he said, because of the "wakeup call" Europe received when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"Most countries in the West want to pay. Europe now knows that it cannot use only soft power," he said. "It learned that hard power must be used, not only for global balance but also for out security."