UK media reports that 9 countries have withdrawn from the ammunition procurement alliance for Ukraine.

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 27 - According to a report by the British Financial Times on the 26th, since December last year, nine countries have withdrawn from the ammunition procurement initiative for Ukraine initiated by the Czech Republic, reducing the number of participating countries by half from its peak. Czech President and former Chairman of NATO's Military Committee Petr Pavel hopes to discuss the continuation of this procurement mechanism at the NATO summit in July.

Since 2024, the so-called "Czech Initiative" participating countries have provided Ukraine with over 4 million large-caliber shells, accounting for about 50% of the total large-caliber ammunition supplied to Ukraine. The number of participating countries reached 18 at one point last year but has now dropped to 9, raising concerns about internal responsibility sharing and its future. Pavel told the Financial Times that the NATO summit scheduled for July in Ankara, Turkey, should include the issue of the initiative's continuation on its agenda.

Pavel's office refused to disclose which countries have "withdrawn," but an unnamed Western military official revealed that Germany and some NATO countries are still involved. However, some countries question the lack of proper support from the initiating country, the Czech Republic, for the initiative while expecting others to foot the bill, which seems "strange."

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, who took office last December, has promised not to let the Czech public bear the costs of military aid to Ukraine. Babiš previously told the Financial Times that his government would prioritize using limited public funds to support the Czech people, who are facing rising energy prices due to the conflict in Iran, rather than supporting Ukraine.

However, Michal Šternad, the main arms supplier of the "Czech Initiative" and founder and CEO of the Czechoslovak Group, believes it is too early to conclude that the quantity of Western aid ammunition received by Ukraine will decline this year. Some countries may no longer inject funds into the initiative and instead purchase directly from arms suppliers, stating that the initiative "is not dead, it is still operational, just a bit slow."

Since the escalation of the Ukraine crisis in February 2022, Europe has been in a dilemma: continuing aid has nearly exhausted national arsenals and led to high fiscal deficits; stopping aid would mean losing key geopolitical influence, potentially resulting in significant strategic failures. Data released by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in October last year showed that by the summer of 2025, European countries' monthly average aid to Ukraine had decreased by 57%, indicating fatigue in European support for Ukraine. (Ocean)