Czech Republic continues ammunition initiative: new defense minister calls support for Ukraine "a matter of course"

The new Czech Minister of Defense, Jaromír Zuna, confirmed that Prague will not stop purchasing shells for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the presentation of the ministry's priorities, he emphasized that supporting Ukraine is "self-evident," as Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is defending itself. This was reported by the Novinky publication, writes UNN.

Details

The minister stressed that the ammunition initiative will continue to operate in 2026, but its management needs to become more efficient. Funding for the purchase of 760,000 shells has already been confirmed for this period.

I don't question it, but we need to talk about effective management 

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For the Czech army itself, the key tasks for the next four years will be:

• Strengthening air defense: this is the number one priority in the new defense planning.
• Increasing the army: the number of professional soldiers is planned to be brought to at least 30,000 (currently about 24-28 thousand).
• Record recruitment: in 2026, the country is preparing for the largest recruitment into the army in the last 20 years.

According to the minister, the army will continue to analyze the experience of the war in Ukraine.

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