Billionaire and candidate for prime minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babis announced that he has no intention of providing direct budgetary support for financing weapons for Ukraine, but added that he has nothing against Czech companies exporting military products to Kiev, Ukrinform reported, citing Radio Prague International, BTA reported.
Currently, Babis's movement "Action of Disgruntled Citizens" (ANO), which won the parliamentary elections, is negotiating to form a government.
At a press conference after a meeting of the ANO parliamentary group, he stressed that the Czech Republic provides assistance to Ukraine through the European Union.
Babiš pointed out that Prague pays an annual contribution to the EU budget of 60 billion crowns, and the Union, in turn, supports Kiev, and added that the Czech Republic is now left without the means to cover its own needs. At the same time, he pointed out that there is no problem with Czech companies exporting weapons to Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Defense in Prague, by the end of 2024, the Czech Republic had provided Kiev with military equipment from its warehouses worth 7.3 billion crowns (292 million euros), Radio Prague International reported.
Earlier, Czech President Petr Pavel emphasized that the cessation of ammunition supplies to Ukraine would primarily harm the Czech Republic.
Babiš's populist ANO party won the parliamentary elections with 34.5% of the vote.
Meanwhile, the Czech General Staff announced that it would provide Ukraine with 30 modernized T-72 tanks, Radio Prague International reported again.
According to the Chief of the General Staff in Prague, Gen. Karel Rzehka, he will make the appropriate recommendation to the government.
Specifically, these are tanks of the T-72M4CZ modification, which are currently being repaired by the Czech state-owned enterprise VOP CZ.
On its website, the Czech Ministry of Defense specified that the decision to supply them was made long before the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war broke out. According to the agreement, the tanks were to be used by the Czech Republic until the purchase of new, more modern ones.
The Czech army is now armed with German "Leopard A4" tanks and a decision has been made to accelerate the purchase of "Leopard 2A8".
According to Gen. The Rzehka tanks will be donated to Ukraine, as it is "in the interest of the Czech Republic".
On September 4, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that Prague would provide Kiev with at least 1.5 million large-caliber shells and continue to train Ukrainian pilots to fly modern fighter jets.