Lithuania has joined the Czech initiative to purchase artillery ammunition for Ukraine and has allocated a corresponding financial package to support this effort.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonite announced this.

On her X (Twitter) account, she reported that the government had allocated €35 million as part of a Czech initiative to purchase artillery ammunition.

“The Lithuanian Government has allocated €35 million to buy ammunition for Ukraine as part of the Czech ammunition initiative,” she wrote.

Lithuania has thus become one of more than 15 countries to join this initiative, which will speed up the procurement and delivery of the shells to Ukraine.

It should be noted that, in addition to Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Norway, as well as Canada, Sweden, and Portugal, have joined this initiative.

At the beginning of February 2024, the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, announced during a debate at the Munich Security Conference that the country’s representatives had found about 1 million artillery shells for Ukraine.

The country’s representatives managed to find about 500,000 155mm artillery shells and 300,000 122mm shells abroad.

He added that those shells could be transported to Ukraine in a matter of weeks if funding is secured quickly.

In addition, European defense companies, such as Germany’s Rheinmetall and the UK’s BAE Systems, are expanding their production at a rapid pace.

German defense giant Rheinmetall plans to produce more than a million artillery shells annually by 2027.

By the end of 2024, the company should produce 700,000 artillery shells. New production facilities in Germany, Ukraine, and Lithuania are expected to help the company reach the one million-unit mark.