Canada to allocate $23M for ammunition for Ukraine - media

According to Ukrinform, CBC News reported this with reference to its own sources.

“Canada has signalled it's prepared to get behind a Czech Republic initiative to ship tens of thousands of artillery shells from different countries to Ukraine on an urgent basis. Although the details are still being finalized, defence sources say the federal government could contribute as much as $30 million to the plan,” the report says.

At the Munich Security Conference, Czech Republic President Petr Pavel announced that he had agreed with Denmark, the Netherlands, and Canada to join efforts to find the equipment and ammunition Ukraine needs around the world. Pavel said the Czech Republic had managed to locate about 800,000 artillery shells of NATO and Soviet-era calibres that could be shipped to Ukraine in a few weeks.

Defence Minister Bill Blair said Canada he had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Czech Republic to assist in the purchase of ammunition, but he did not provide any details of the agreement.

“Canada's allies, meanwhile, fear that Ottawa may choose to invest in munitions production through the Czech Republic while continuing to defer building up domestic weapons manufacturing capacity,” CBC reported.

As reported by Ukrinform, Canada has not yet signed agreements with its own artillery shell producers to increase production. This is due to the required modernization of enterprises, which will take at least three years and cost approximately $300 million from the state budget. Canadian officials have stated that the long-term demand for artillery shells worldwide will not be sufficient to recoup such investments.