PRAGUE: Ukraine will receive 50,000-100,000 shells in June under a Czech-led initiative to buy ammunition for the war-ravaged country largely outside Europe, a Czech official said Thursday.
Tomas Kopecny, the Czech government envoy for Ukraine reconstruction, told reporters that Ukraine, battling a Russian invasion since February 2022, could get millions of shells if allies managed to collect the money.
“The first delivery under the umbrella of this Czech initiative will be in June, and it will be dozens of thousands of shells, between 50 and 100,” he said on the fringes of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague.
Ukrainian forces said earlier this year they were so low on supplies that they were forced to ration ammunition, letting Russia seize ground.
Russia has more recently launched a widescale offensive in northeastern Ukraine ahead of the delivery of US weapons that were approved after a long delay in Congress.
Besides the Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal have so far contributed some 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to buy 500,000 shells in the first phase, Kopecny said.
Ten other countries are “in the process” with talks for donations under way, he said.
In Prague for the NATO meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the so-called Czech initiative, estimating that the effort will bring one million shells to Ukraine by the end of the year.
“Czechia’s leadership is really quite extraordinary,” Blinken said. “We’re not only stronger, we’re more likely to prevent — to deter — aggression when we’re united.”
Kopecny urged further contributions as Ukraine will need 200,000 shells a month in the next two years “just to make the balance” vis-a-vis Russia.
The necessary supplies will swallow “between seven and ten billion euros per year,” he said, adding the 500,000 shells obtained or pledged so far would suffice for two and a half months.
He said allies were competing for millions of rounds of ammunition produced outside Europe with Russia.
“It’s about speed,” he said. “It’s a market where the owner of a product wants to sell it at the highest price.”
Kopecny also slammed allies for a failure to use bank loans to finance the weapon supplies to Ukraine.
“It’s so frustrating when you compare it with the expenses and the loans the EU took for Covid. Hundreds of billions of euros. Easy. And here we’re struggling with hundreds of millions.”
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Ukraine to get up to 100,000 shells in June: Czech official
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Ukraine to get up to 100,000 shells in June: Czech official
- Ukraine could get millions of shells if allies managed to collect the money
- Ukrainian forces said earlier this year they were so low on supplies that they were forced to ration ammunition, letting Russia seize ground
Pardoned Honduran ex-president praises Trump
WASHINGTON: The recently freed former president of Honduras praised US President Donald Trump Wednesday for opening “a lot of people’s eyes in Honduras” by supporting conservative presidential candidate Nasry Asfura.
Juan Orlando Hernandez was freed from serving a 45-year sentence in a US prison after receiving a presidential pardon from Trump, and he is presumed to be staying at an unknown location.
“The Honduran people sent a clear message. Overwhelmingly, they rejected the failed ideology of the radical left, the socialism coming from Venezuela,” Hernandez said in an interview with far-right broadcaster One America News (OAN).
“But we have to understand that they have a playbook. You know, every single election I won, even before the day of the election, the radical left also would say, ‘if we don’t win, we are not going to recognize the results.’“
Trump-backed businessman Asfura has a razor-thin lead in the presidential election over TV personality Salvador Nasralla — also a conservative — but votes are still being counted amid claims of interference.
Suspicions of fraud have been fueled by successive computer failures that have stalled tallying.
The ruling party in Honduras, led by leftist president Xiomara Castro, has rejected the provisional results giving Asfura a slim lead.
The left maintains Trump’s support of Asfura and his pardon of Hernandez amounted to electoral interference.
Extradited by Honduras to face charges in the United States and convicted of drug trafficking, the former leader insists it was all a setup carried out by the previous presidential administration of Joe Biden because his policies were too conservative.
Hernandez did not reveal his plans or whether he plans to seek asylum in the United States.
“My priority right now is how I can reunite with my family. I haven’t seen them in four years,” he said.
Asked whether he would be willing to seek asylum in Israel, where he forged strong ties by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, Hernandez said it would be “a very complicated move, and I don’t have any financial support to do that.”
In Honduras, the current government’s prosecutor’s office has reopened the arrest warrant facing Hernandez.
“Isn’t that a clear example of political persecution? What I’m going to do right now, I’m working with my lawyers,” he said.
Hernandez added that if he returns to Honduras he will not only face the “political charges, but also there are some documents from the FBI and other US agencies that say there are people who want to target my life and my family.”
Juan Orlando Hernandez was freed from serving a 45-year sentence in a US prison after receiving a presidential pardon from Trump, and he is presumed to be staying at an unknown location.
“The Honduran people sent a clear message. Overwhelmingly, they rejected the failed ideology of the radical left, the socialism coming from Venezuela,” Hernandez said in an interview with far-right broadcaster One America News (OAN).
“But we have to understand that they have a playbook. You know, every single election I won, even before the day of the election, the radical left also would say, ‘if we don’t win, we are not going to recognize the results.’“
Trump-backed businessman Asfura has a razor-thin lead in the presidential election over TV personality Salvador Nasralla — also a conservative — but votes are still being counted amid claims of interference.
Suspicions of fraud have been fueled by successive computer failures that have stalled tallying.
The ruling party in Honduras, led by leftist president Xiomara Castro, has rejected the provisional results giving Asfura a slim lead.
The left maintains Trump’s support of Asfura and his pardon of Hernandez amounted to electoral interference.
Extradited by Honduras to face charges in the United States and convicted of drug trafficking, the former leader insists it was all a setup carried out by the previous presidential administration of Joe Biden because his policies were too conservative.
Hernandez did not reveal his plans or whether he plans to seek asylum in the United States.
“My priority right now is how I can reunite with my family. I haven’t seen them in four years,” he said.
Asked whether he would be willing to seek asylum in Israel, where he forged strong ties by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, Hernandez said it would be “a very complicated move, and I don’t have any financial support to do that.”
In Honduras, the current government’s prosecutor’s office has reopened the arrest warrant facing Hernandez.
“Isn’t that a clear example of political persecution? What I’m going to do right now, I’m working with my lawyers,” he said.
Hernandez added that if he returns to Honduras he will not only face the “political charges, but also there are some documents from the FBI and other US agencies that say there are people who want to target my life and my family.”
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