BERLIN, March 19. /TASS/. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced a new package of military aid for Ukraine worth approximately 500 million euros, speaking to reporters at the US Air Force Ramstein Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate, where another meeting of the contact group on aiding Kiev takes place.

"We have formed another aid package for this meeting worth almost half a billion euros," he said.

The new aid package includes 10,000 shells from the Bundeswehr stockpile. In addition, it fill pay for procurement of 180,000 shells "under the Czech initiative."

"In addition, Germany signed a contract on [production] of 100,000 155-mm shells," the minister said.

The shipments will come in stages and will begin this summer, Pistorius added.

During the Munich Security Conference on February 17, Czech President Petr Pavel said that Prague has found an option to procure hundreds of thousands of artillery shells in third countries, if the necessary funding is raised. Later, the Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced that this initiative has already been supported by 18 Western states, with procurement of 300,000 shells already confirmed and about 200,000 promised.

Previously, Germany allocated 7 billion euros for aid to Ukraine in its budget for this year.