Ukraine can’t get about 50% of shells under Czech initiative due to poor quality - FT
The Czech company Czechoslovak Group (CSG), one of the largest suppliers of ammunition in Central Europe, explained the delay in the supply of ammunition under the Czech initiative to Ukraine by the fact that almost half of it was of poor quality.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the Financial Times.
CSG head Michal Strnad said that the Czech-led initiative to purchase artillery ammunition for Kyiv will start delivering shells in June.
According to him, about 50% of the stocks that his company purchased on behalf of the Czech government in Africa and Asia turned out to be of poor quality and need to be improved before being shipped to Ukraine.
For some shells, CSG has to add missing components of its own production.
Strnad noted that amid rising prices, there are "big problems" with such parts.
At the same time, the Czech initiative remains "on track" and CSG intends to deliver the part of the supplies it has been assigned, the Financial Times notes.
The CSG head noted that the war in Ukraine had contributed to the rise in prices for a limited number of shells that could be purchased outside the EU, while Europe itself did not have the necessary ammunition.
According to the head of the company, orders from European ammunition manufacturers were booked for eight years in advance, even though they are all increasing production capacity.
Even if the war in Ukraine were to end right now, "there is a huge job ahead of us to replenish NATO's strategic stockpiles," Strnad added.
Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine
At the Munich Security Conference in February, Czech President Petr Pavel said that his country had found hundreds of thousands of shells for Ukraine, but that the project needed funding. He called on allies to help raise money to buy the weapons. A number of countries responded and contributed to the Czech initiative to purchase shells for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In total, almost 20 countries have joined Prague's idea.
Earlier it was reported that the Czech Republic had signed a contract for the first 180,000 pieces of artillery ammunition for Ukraine and was working on obtaining another 300,000 pieces.
The partner countries plan to send Ukraine half a million rounds of ammunition by the end of 2024 as part of the Czech initiative.
