Czechs will buy ammunition for Ukraine with income from frozen Russian assets

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PRAGUE (Reuters) -The Czech Republic will use some of the interest earned on Russian assets frozen in the European Union to buy hundreds of thousands more artillery shells for Ukraine, the Czech Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Western countries blocked about $300 billion worth of sovereign Russian assets after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

EU countries are taking the interest earned on the assets -which include bonds and other securities bought by the Russian central bank – and putting it into an EU fund to aid Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.

EU governments agreed in June to use 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in profits generated by the assets to buy arms and pay for other kinds of support to Ukraine.

The Czech Defence Ministry said some of that money would be used for an effort it has been leading to buy artillery ammunition for Ukraine around the world, funded by Western partners.

“Thanks to proceeds from frozen Russian finances, released by the European Union, we will be able to supply several hundreds of thousands of large-calibre ammunition rounds to Ukraine,” minister Jana Cernochova said.

The ministry did not give further details but said deliveries would be made “in the coming months”, and thus would soon have an impact on the battlefield.

There was no immediate reaction to the Czech announcement from Moscow.

In July, the Kremlin called the plan to use interest earned on frozen Russian assets to fund military aid to Ukraine “theft” and said it would take legal action against anyone involved in the decision.

Ukraine received its first consignment of 50,000-100,000 shells under the initiative in June and deliveries continue every month, Czech officials have said.

Aside from the newly available funds, the Czechs had collected about 1.7 billion euros from western partners by May, which the government said was enough to buy half a million shells.

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Jason Neely, Helen Popper and Christina Fincher)