South Korea did not participate in the Czech initiative to purchase shells for the Armed Forces – Kopechny

South Korea did not provide artillery shells of its own production, nor did it make financial contributions for the purchase of shells from other countries within the framework of the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for the armed forces in third countries. In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, the Czech government’s commissioner for the restoration of Ukraine, Tomasz Kopechny, said this.

“So far, South Korea has not participated in the Czech initiative. From a financial point of view, they were not among the 16 countries that contributed, and they were not among the supplier countries from which we receive shells. This is the situation at the moment,” said Kopechny.

In this way, the government official denied information that had previously appeared in the German publication BILD that South Korea was probably one of the suppliers of ammunition within the framework of the Czech initiative.

Earlier, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that South Korea does not yet plan to supply 155 mm shells to Ukraine amid reports of North Korean soldiers taking part in the war on the side of Russia.

On October 22, South Korea announced a possible review of support for Kyiv, in particular regarding the provision of lethal weapons and the deployment of personnel, depending on the situation in Ukraine.

In February 2024, Czech President Petr Pavel announced that the Czech Republic would collect about 800,000 shells for Ukraine from third countries outside the European Union.

Later, he announced that Ukraine would receive tens of thousands of projectiles every month as part of the Czech initiative. In May, Pavel reported that one and a half dozen EU and NATO countries are participating in the initiative, which have allocated a total of 1.6 billion euros for the purchase of ammunition.