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Previous Czech government secretly transferred weapons worth $822 mln to Ukraine — PM

Andrej Babis emphasized that Prague will no longer allocate funds for arming Kiev but will continue to coordinate the European initiative for military assistance to Ukraine for "interested foreign partners"

PRAGUE, January 13. /TASS/. The previous Czech government, led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala, covertly supplied weapons to Ukraine worth 17.1 billion Czech korunas (approximately $822 million), Prime Minister Andrej Babis has stated.

"At least 17.1 billion korunas from the Czech budget were secretly allocated for [Ukrainian] armaments. All this was hidden, everything was top secret," he stated as quoted by the CTK news agency.

Babis also emphasized that Prague will no longer allocate funds for arming Kiev but will continue to coordinate the European initiative for military assistance to Ukraine for "interested foreign partners."

Fiala, for his part, criticized the disclosure of this information. He claims that it "endangers the safety of people and companies" involved in military assistance to Ukraine.

Earlier, Babis, who leads the centrist political movement ANO (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens), which won the October parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, promised his voters to cancel the "artillery shell initiative." After negotiations with leaders of the "coalition of the willing" held in Paris on January 13, he adjusted this approach and advocated for preserving the project but without the republic's financial participation.

The implementation of the initiative to supply artillery shells to the Ukrainian Armed Forces is supported by Czech President Petr Pavel. It is opposed mainly by the political movement SPD ("Freedom and Direct Democracy"), which is part of the current government coalition of the republic. According to Czech media, its chairman and Speaker of the lower house of the country's parliament, Tomio Okamura, indicated that the issue of its fate will be raised for discussion among the ruling coalition leaders.

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