Estonia finds another million shells for Ukraine
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur (photo: Getty Images)
Estonia has found an opportunity to purchase another batch of ammunition for the Ukrainian army worth several billion euros, states Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur.
According to him, Estonia has the opportunity to purchase two to three billion euros worth of shells and missiles for the Ukrainian army. However, this will be possible if the allies provide funds.
Given the cost of the shells, it could be about one million Grad shells and missiles.
Pevkur said that he had already spoken about this possibility at a meeting of the Ramstein on March 19. According to him, Estonia would be able to get these munitions mainly from non-European countries.
"Unfortunately, I cannot specify. In many cases, the seller themselves does not wish it to be known. Since the orders include 155 mm as well as 152 mm shells, Russia is also actively searching globally for suppliers via Belarus [155 mm are utilized by NATO artillery systems and the Russian army employs 152 mm shells – ed.]. There's a bit of a race against time to see who can secure them first," he said.
He also explained that this idea of Estonia is separate from the EU initiative to provide Ukraine with one million shells.
"That is a separate matter. This quantity is either produced or taken from the storages of European Union countries. Roughly a third of this has been done. The remaining part is approximately 600,000-700,000. European Union countries have committed to supplying Ukraine with 1.1 million shells by the end of this year," he emphasized.
Czech initiative
Czech President Petr Pavel said that his country had discovered about 800,000 artillery shells outside the European Union that could be transferred to Ukraine. But, according to him, this requires funding.
After that, a number of Western countries began to allocate money for the purchase of ammunition, which is one of the main needs of Ukrainian defenders.
Recently, the Czech Foreign Minister said that 1.5 million shells could be transferred to Ukraine as part of the initiative, rather than 800,000 as previously planned.
According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, our country expects the first batch of ammunition to be delivered to our defenders in April.
