Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala altered his speech during an address to allies regarding the initiative to procure 800 thousand rounds of ammunition for Ukraine. He made this decision upon learning that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who adheres to a pro-Russian position, would also be present at the table.
This was reported by Aktualne.
The meeting of country leaders in Paris three weeks ago, convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, was intended to discuss a range of issues regarding joint efforts to address Ukraine’s most urgent needs during the Russian intervention.
Initially, the Czech Prime Minister planned to inform others about the ongoing Czech initiative to seek ammunition for Ukraine from non-European countries. However, when it was discovered that instead of 15 representatives, there would be 25 present at the meeting, one of whom was Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Fiala changed his speech and concealed the details.
It is noted that at that time, Fico delivered a speech on the occasion of the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, in which he stated that Russian dictator Putin was “wrongly demonized”.
As explained by anonymous sources in the diplomatic representation, they did indeed omit strategically important information from the speech and later provided it “individually to several leaders”.
“The head of the Czech government did not want strategic information about ammunition for Ukraine to fall into Russian ears through the words of the Slovak Prime Minister”, the statement said.
In recent months, there has been a critical shortage of artillery ammunition in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Recently, due to this reason, our fighters had to retreat from the city of Avdiivka and also lost several other settlements in the Donetsk region.
In February, Czech President Petr Pavel announced that Prague had found 800 thousand artillery ammunition for the military needs of Ukraine: half a million of caliber 155 mm and 300 thousand of caliber 122 mm. However, funds were needed for their purchase.
The initiative was supported by Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, and France. In particular, on March 6, Germany provided a three-digit million sum for the purchase of ammunition. Norway also allocated over $150 million for ammunition.
Photo: open sources
