The Czech Republic says it is on the verge of delivering thousands of extra artillery shells to Ukraine, just weeks after it announced an initiative to source the much-needed supplies from outside the EU.
Its foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said it had so far secured 300,000 shells and that the ammunition would provide a vital “few months’ breathing space” on the frontline. Sources added that the first deliveries would come before June.
“We have a direct experience with 40 years of being a satellite of Moscow, being a country which was invaded in 1968 by Russian tanks to curb the Prague Spring,” said Lipavský, adding that his country could not stand by and watch Ukraine go without help. “No one really wants to bring back those [Soviet] times, and I have to say that the population is very sensitive to that.”
The Czech republic must be one of the countries where the cold war wasted the most potential, they could have been very rich, had the borders been slightly different.