Czech Initiative: Ukraine Already Received 4.4 Million Shells

Ukraine has already received 4.4 million large-caliber shells under the Czech Initiative program, which accounts for more than 50% of all large-caliber ammunition provided.

This was announced by Czech President Petr Pavel in an interview with Odkryto.

As part of the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in third countries, nearly 4.4 million large-caliber shells have been delivered to Ukraine.

“If we look at the past period, since the initiative was launched, it has delivered about 4 million 400,000 units of large-caliber ammunition to Ukraine. Last year alone, it was almost two million. Without this supply of ammunition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine would not have been able to conduct effective defense, because if you do not have a secure and predictable supply of ammunition, you cannot plan your defense effectively,” he said.

Pavel emphasized that the Czechia not only initiated this project, but also contributed its know-how on how to bring together partners, finances, resources, routes, and logistics to collect ammunition from all over the world, wherever it is available, and deliver them to Ukraine “under reasonable conditions and at reasonable prices in the shortest possible time.”

The Czech Initiative has been in place since early 2024, with the first deliveries of shells beginning in the summer of that year. The program involves purchasing ammunition in third countries and delivering it to Ukraine.

The program provides for the purchase of not only 155 mm shells, but also other types of shells with a caliber of 100 mm and above. In particular, there were reports of deliveries of 122 mm, 152 mm, and 155 mm artillery shells.

After the change of government in Czechia at the end of 2025, there was uncertainty about the continuation of this initiative, but the new government decided to continue it, provided that Czechia itself would not financially support it, but would only coordinate it.

It is known that as of mid-December 2025, partner countries had already secured funding for the purchase of 760,000 artillery shells for Ukraine in 2026 under the Czech Initiative.