Macron Says France Will Join Czech Ammunition Plan for Kyiv

Ania Nussbaum
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron threw his support behind a Czech plan to deliver hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine from countries outside the European Union to help it force back Russian advances.

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France will take part in the initiative, Macron said, without offering financial details, adding that the EU’s European Peace Facility could also be tapped in part to fund it. A French official had previously said such mechanisms would not be used.

“The Czech initiative is extremely useful, we support it, we’ll participate in it,” Macron said in Prague Tuesday alongside Czech President Petr Pavel. “It consists of looking for ammunition everywhere it is available and is compatible with the equipment we’ve delivered.”

Macron has insisted on focusing the EU’s efforts on bolstering Europe’s defense industry rather than diverting funds for off-the-shelf material from outside the bloc. But dwindling ammunition stocks and stalled funding from the US have put Ukrainian forces on the back foot, raising worries that Russian troops may make significant advances by summer.

The Czech president said last month that Prague had identified some 800,000 rounds of ammunition that could be bought from non-EU countries and delivered within weeks if money were made available. Days later, Macron hosted leaders in Paris to discuss support for Ukraine, including the Czech proposal. The Netherlands agreed to contribute €100 million ($108 million).

The initiative is a backstop as the EU has fallen well short of a pledge to provide Ukraine with 1 million rounds of artillery by this month. Russia is producing far more and benefiting from ammunition deliveries from North Korea.

Emergency Measure

Addressing how to pay for the plan, Macron said: “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.”

Discussions on boosting the EPF — a mechanism used to refund member states for weapons they provide to Ukraine — with €5 billion a year have been stalled due to France’s resistance to spending funds on non-EU deliveries as well as German requests to include bilateral contributions in how the fund’s resources are calculated. EU member states are seeking to reach a deal well before leaders meet in the third week of March.

After Macron spoke, a French official said the EPF should favor European equipment and that non-European sourcing should be seen as an emergency measure to supply Ukraine’s immediate needs.

Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada have all joined France in backing the Czech plan to buy non-EU ammunition, while Poland expressed interest, Bloomberg has reported. A separate discussion of EU defense and foreign ministers is expected to take place later this week to hammer out the details.

The French president already broke a taboo last week when he publicly floated the possibility of sending European troops to Ukraine to support initiatives like de-mining and training, irking some of his allies.

Earlier Tuesday, he reiterated the message to Czech media.

“In response to a question about sending troops, I replied that nothing was ruled out. Every word counts,” Macron told Pravo newspaper. “We’re starting the debate and thinking about what we can do to support Ukraine.”

--With assistance from Deana Kjuka, Natalia Drozdiak, Alberto Nardelli and Andrea Dudik.

(Updates with comment from French official in ninth paragraph.)

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