Norway will allocate up to $153 million for the Czech initiative to purchase 800,000 artillery rounds for Ukraine.

Radio Svoboda reported on this.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced this.

“Ukraine urgently needs a large amount of artillery ammunition to counter Russia’s aggressive war. Today, we have decided to allocate up to NOK 1.6 billion to an initiative under the auspices of the Czech Republic to provide Ukraine with much-needed artillery ammunition as soon as possible,” he emphasized.

The Norwegian Prime Minister expressed hope that European support for the Czech initiative would help Ukraine receive the ammunition as soon as possible.

Militarnyi previously reported that Germany will allocate a “three-digit million-dollar sum” to support the Czech initiative to purchase 800,000 shells for Ukraine.

Previously, some European countries, including Lithuania, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, joined this initiative.

Within this initiative, countries participate in the joint procurement and transfer of ammunition to Ukraine by identifying possible stockpiles of ammunition or sources of rapid production available for purchase.

All for the sake of delivering military aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as soon as possible, which is necessary to confront the Russian invaders.

As previously reported, the Czech Republic has located about 800,000 artillery rounds of NATO and Soviet-era caliber in third countries that can be purchased for Ukraine.

According to Czech President Petr Pavel, the country’s officials managed to find about 500,000 155-mm artillery shells and 300,000 122-mm shells abroad.

The Netherlands, which will allocate €250 million to purchase the ammunition, and Belgium, which will provide €200 million, have publicly announced their participation.

France has also supported this initiative, but no funds have been reported. Overall, fifteen countries support the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine outside the EU.

As previously reported, German officials were holding secret talks with India on the purchase of artillery shells for Ukraine.