The Canadian government is close to allocating funding for the purchase of artillery shells from non-NATO countries for Ukraine.
This was reported by CBC.
The country is ready to support the initiative of the Czech Republic, which announced at the opening of the Munich Security Conference that it had found over 800,000 artillery shells in countries outside the NATO bloc.
Currently, according to Czech President Petr Pavel, other countries are also expected to join this initiative, as additional funding is needed for its implementation.
According to sources in the Canadian Ministry of Defense, the government is preparing to support a proposal to allocate $30 million USD for the purchase of these shells.
Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair also confirmed discussions with representatives of the Czech Republic on this matter, but indicated that he would provide further details later.
"We have signed a memorandum of understanding with one of our European allies, the Czech Republic, regarding the possible purchase of ammunition, which will allow us to make them available to Ukraine sooner, as we are only increasing our own production," the minister said.
It should be noted that some countries are concerned that Canada, by providing funding for the purchase of artillery shells outside NATO, may not continue to expand the production of artillery ammunition on its own territory in the future.
As of today, Canada produces approximately 5,000 artillery shells per month, which are licensed copies of the American M107 for use with the M777 howitzers.
