Poland is joining a Czech initiative to procure 800,000 artillery shells for Ukraine from countries outside the EU, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Thursday.
Warsaw not only wanted to offer financial support, but also to help with the logistics, he said at a meeting with his counterparts from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia in the so-called Visegrad Group format.
The aim, Sikorski said, was to get the ammunition to where it was needed on the front line.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, however, was adamant that his country would not be involved in the initiative. He said that Hungary had not supplied any weapons to Ukraine so far, and would not do so in future. His Slovakian counterpart Juraj Blanar said he believed the war in Ukraine had no military solution.
Eighteen countries have so far pledged funds for the Czech initiative, including Germany, France, Canada and Norway. Czech President Petr Pavel said at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February that around half a million 155-mm calibre rounds and 300,000 122-mm calibre rounds had been sourced abroad.
Ukraine has been complaining for months about an increasing shortage of artillery ammunition for use in its defence against Russian aggression.