Ukraine has received one million large-calibre ammunition in 2025 as part of a Czech initiative, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on 13 August.
“The meeting of a coalition of the willing is important. I appreciate the coordination with President Trump ahead of Friday’s meeting in Alaska, and I welcome the fact that today’s meeting of the coalition of the willing also included Vice President J.D. Vance for the first time. I am pleased that within the coalition of the willing we have a clear consensus on the way forward. I can also announce that as of today we have already delivered one million rounds of large calibre ammunition to Ukraine this year from the Czech ammunition initiative,” Fiala wrote on social network X.
In February 2024, the Czech Republic rallied at least 16 European donor countries around it and launched the EU-independent “Czech Ammunition Initiative for Ukraine.” The coalition took as its goal the purchase of 800,000 shells of mostly large calibres. A year after that pledge, Czech officials said they had managed to double that number.
Despite the claimed success of the “Czech initiative”, it has also been heavily criticised by the Czech opposition and some Ukrainian non-governmental organisations. The Czech authorities have been accused of having ties with local private procurement companies, and the latter of allegedly exorbitant profits, poor quality of shells and delays in deliveries.
In February 2025, former Czech prime minister and current opposition politician Andrej Babiš described the ammunition as “old, mouldy, purchased non-transparently and at inflated prices”, but did not provide evidence.