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Norway to allocate over $150 mln to buy munitions for Ukraine

Addressing the Munich Security Conference on February 17, Czech President Petr Pavel said that Prague had found a possibility to buy hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds for Ukraine in third countries in case funds for that were available

STOCKHOLM, March 7. /TASS/. Norway will donate up to 1.6 billion Norwegian kroner ($153 million) to the Czech-led initiative on purchasing munitions for Ukraine in third countries, Reuters said, citing Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

"Ukraine urgently needs large quantities of artillery ammunition to withstand the Russian war of aggression," the agency quoted him as saying.

Addressing the Munich Security Conference on February 17, Czech President Petr Pavel said that Prague had found a possibility to buy hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds for Ukraine in third countries in case funds for that were available.

The Politico newspaper said earlier that the Czech Republic, sullen over the European Union’s failure to keep its promise to supply Kiev with one million rounds from March 2023 to March 2024, demanded that the European Union begin buying munitions for Ukraine in third countries, in particular in Turkey, South Africa, and South Korea.

Czech Governmental Envoy for the Reconstruction of Ukraine Tomas Kopecny said on March 4 that Belgium, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States had joined the Czech initiative. Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said during a phone call with her Czech counterpart, Petr Fiala that Vilnius would support Prague’s initiative. According to Kopecny, it is planned to buy at least 800,000 munitions, but the figure may change.

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