Norway allocates over $150 million for shells for Ukraine. Germany and France also support Czech Republic's plan

The Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, announced this, the government's press service reports.

"Norway supports Ukraine with artillery ammunition both from its own stocks and directly from the industry. Today we have decided to contribute up to NOK 1.6 billion to an initiative organized by the Czech Republic to provide Ukraine with much-needed artillery ammunition as soon as possible," the official said.

On March 6, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that the country had decided to join the Czech initiative, Tagesschau reports.

The German federal government will contribute a three-digit million-dollar sum to the Czech initiative to purchase shells for Ukraine, the spokesman said.

The day before, French President Macron announced that the country would join the plan to purchase shells for Ukraine.

"The Czech initiative is extremely useful, we support it, we'll participate in it. It consists of looking for ammunition everywhere it is available and is compatible with the equipment we've delivered," Macron said at a meeting with the Czech president in Prague.

The French president also spoke about payment options for ammunition.

"It can be a bilateral mobilization, it can be cooperations with third parties, bilateral financing, just as it can be European financing, that of the European Peace Facility, which can be mobilized in part for this initiative," he said.

Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine: what is known

On February 17, it was reported that the Czech Republic had found sources abroad for hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds that it could deliver to Ukraine within weeks.

The Netherlands publicly announced its participation by donating €100 million for the purchase of ammunition. France will also join the initiative to purchase shells for Ukraine outside the EU.

On February 22, it was announced that Canada was ready to allocate up to $22 million for shells for Ukraine. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also announced that the country would finance the Czech initiative with €200 million.

On March 2, the Czech Republic announced that it would be able to make the first deliveries of ammunition to Kyiv in a few weeks.

Subsequently, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonite said that her country would facilitate the Czech Republic's multilateral initiative to purchase and transfer artillery ammunition to Ukraine.