Czech Republic did not collect even a third of the required amount to buy shells for Ukraine under its program

Only €1.4 billion has been raised for the Czech Republic project to purchase ammunition for Ukraine, out of the €5 billion required.

Reuters reports this, citing a senior NATO military official.

The program, which also involves Denmark, Netherlands, Germany and other countries, is aimed at purchasing large-caliber munitions for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to reduce their gap with Russian forces on the battlefield.

In December, NATO’s mission to Ukraine reported that in 2025 Kyiv received 1.8 million artillery shells through this program—43% of all ammunition supplied to it by its Western allies. About 70% of these were outdated Soviet-era shells.

The Reuters source clarified that ammunition worth €16 billion is currently available on the global market. According to him, NATO plans to spend €5 billion to purchase hundreds of thousands of artillery shells under the Czech program, but it all depends on the activity and generosity of donors.

In December, former Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavský said that about $4.8 billion had been allocated to purchase shells under this program, of which Prague itself donated more than $145 million.

In January, Czech foreign minister Petr Macinka stated that the country can no longer invest funds in its own program to assist Ukraine. Before him, a similar statement was made by the country’s prime minister Andrej Babiš. At the same time, the head of the Czech company supplying weapons to Kyiv, it turned out, became the richest representative of this industry in the world.