The Czech Republic may refuse to finance weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine: what is the reason?

Andrej Babis, the leader of the ANO party, which won the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, said that if a government is formed with the participation of his political force, the country will stop directly financing the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

This is reported by the Ceske Noviny newspaper.

Babis noted that he supports the Czech Shell Initiative, under which European states jointly purchase artillery ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, he criticized the current mechanism for implementing the program. According to the politician, the process should be more transparent and coordinated, in particular, through NATO structures. He stated that the current model allows private business to profit from military contracts, receiving profits in the “tens of billions.”

Babis also emphasized that the Czech Republic already makes contributions to the European Union budget, from which Ukraine receives assistance.

“We will not give Ukraine a single crown from the national budget for the purchase of weapons. We have already helped, now the EU should do it. And we ourselves do not have enough funds for basic needs,” he said.

At the same time, the ANO leader is not against commercial arms exports to the Ukrainian side.

“If Czech defense companies want to sell weapons to Ukraine, we will not prevent this,” the politician noted.

Recall that in the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, which ended on October 4, the populist ANO party of the country’s former Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who had previously repeatedly expressed anti-Ukrainian views, won.

As reported, the victory of populist and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis in the parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic could affect the country’s position on the war in Ukraine . At the same time, his ANO party did not win enough votes to form a government on its own, so Babis will have to look for coalition partners.

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