Ukraine has already received a total of 4.4 million large-caliber roundsunder the Czech initiative. This is a program involving Czech arms dealers and manufacturers and available funding from foreign donors.
The announcement was made by President Petr Pavel, Reuters reports.
"Since its launch the initiative has brought about 4.4 million pieces of large-calibre ammunition to Ukraine. Without this ammunition reserve, Ukraine's armed forces could not effectively lead defence," Pavel said.
Pavel noted that last year almost 2 million rounds of ammunition were delivered. This figure is slightly higher than NATO's December estimate of 1.8 million.
According to Czech officials, donors have allocated billions of euros to the program over the past two years.
A NATO spokesman said last week that more funds are needed, as commitments stand at EUR 1.4 billion, while the target is EUR 5 billion.
Under the program, Czech military officials and defense companies buy 155mm and other large-caliber ammunition from around the world, purchase it and send it to Ukraine with funds from Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and other donors.
The new Czech government, led by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš of the populist ANO party, including the pro-russian far-right SPD, considered canceling the initiative, but under pressure from Pavel and his allies agreed to go ahead with the plan, although it said it would not provide any state funding for these purchases.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Czech President Petr Pavel said that his country would soon provide Ukraine with combat aircraft to increase the effectiveness of countering drones launched by the aggressor country russia.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš spoke against the sale of four L-159 light attack aircraft to Ukraine, calling such discussions inappropriate.
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