Exclusive: Nine countries pull out of Ukraine ammunition coalition

The number of countries participating in a Czech-led initiative to buy ammunition for Ukraine has halved since Prime Minister Andrej Babiš returned to office in December on a pledge not to make Czech citizens pay for Ukraine’s weapons.

Only nine countries are now funding the initiative, down from as many as 18 last year, according to Czech President Petr Pavel, a former Nato commander. The trend is raising concerns over burden sharing and the future of a project launched by the previous pro-EU government with Pavel’s strong backing.

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>“Some of the donating countries basically said that they are not interested in financing it [the initiative] anymore, so they buy directly from us or from some other suppliers,” Strnad said. The initiative is “not dead, it’s still working, but it’s a bit slow”.

Basically, a few countries are not comfortable sending money to Czechia anymore because of Babiš being in power, and have decided to rather support Ukraine directly rather than through this initiative. 

Not great of course, but nowhere nearly as bad as the clickbaity title makes it out to be.