Polish DM reaffirms Warsaw's commitment to participate in Czech initiative

This is stated in the response of the Ministry of National Defense of Poland to an information request from Ukrinform.

“This spring, the Polish side announced that it would join the Czech Republic's proposal to jointly purchase ammunition for the needs of Ukrainian troops. Following the statements of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, work has begun at the government level since spring to determine the amount of the financial contribution and the terms of the project in agreement with the Czech side. The institution entrusted with these tasks is the State Agency for Strategic Reserves,” the Polish Ministry of Defense told the agency.

They also added that, according to their information, RARS is in dialogue with the Czech government agency AMOS and is holding the necessary consultations on this issue.

As reported, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said during a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiga in Kyiv last Friday that Poland would allocate 100 million euros for the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for the Ukrainian army - half this year and the rest next year.

He added that this year's tranche from Warsaw was delayed because the previous head of RARS was detained in London under an international arrest warrant issued by Poland. He is charged with corruption crimes in Poland. However, Sikorsky assured that this problem would be resolved and the transfer of funds would take place this year.

In January, at a meeting of EU heads of state and government, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala presented an initiative to purchase ammunition from around the world with EU funds to be transferred to Ukraine. In February, it was publicly announced on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference by Czech President Petr Pavel.

This initiative was supported by a number of states. In particular, 15 EU and NATO countries contributed more than EUR 1.6 billion to its fund.

The Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza recently wrote that Poland, despite joining the initiative, has not yet allocated funds for it.