HELSINKI, March 21. /TASS/. Helsinki plans to allocate 30 mln euros to take part in the Czech Republic’s initiative for the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine, the Finnish Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"Apart from material aid packages, Finland is helping Ukraine in other ways, too. The joint procurement of ammunition coordinated by the Czech Republic is a very important tool to address the acute ammunition shortage that Ukraine is facing," the statement quoted Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen as saying.
Czech President Petr Pavel stated at the Munich Security Conference on February 17 that Prague had found a way to procure hundreds of thousands of artillery shells for Kiev from third countries provided there were enough funds to implement the initiative. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced later that 18 Western countries had come out in support of the initiative, and the purchase of 300,000 shells had been confirmed with further plans for some 200,000 more.