France supports the Czech Republic’s plan to buy shells for Ukraine outside the EU

France supported the Czech Republic’s initiative to purchase artillery shells for Ukraine from non-EU countries.

All for the sake of delivering military aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as soon as possible, which is necessary to confront the Russian invaders.

Bloomberg reported on this.

“The Czech proposal is totally consistent with what we have done in terms of artillery. We have asked non-EU countries to find a solution. We will participate in this initiative. We are completely open to this. Our only goal is efficiency,” French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala suggested the idea of purchasing hundreds of thousands of artillery shells from several countries at a meeting of European leaders dedicated to helping Ukraine, which took place in Paris on Monday, February 26.

The Czech Prime Minister also stated that fifteen countries are ready to join this initiative, which aims to solve the problem of supplying artillery shells to Ukraine as part of international military assistance.

As previously reported, the Czech Republic found about 800,000 artillery shells of NATO and Soviet-era caliber that can be shipped to Ukraine as soon as possible.

According to Czech President Petr Pavel, the country’s representatives managed to locate about 500,000 155-mm artillery shells and 300,000 122-mm shells abroad.

In addition, during the summit in Paris, French President Macron reaffirmed his support for Estonia’s plan to issue Eurobonds to guarantee long-term defense contracts for the industry, The Guardian reports.

This should, in particular, help procure the necessary ammunition for Ukraine.

In February, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas proposed that the European Union develop a €100 billion Eurobond plan to stimulate the continent’s defense industry while doing more to provide weapons to Ukraine.

She emphasized this in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.