The leaders of five European NATO states reaffirmed their support for Ukraine on May 28 at a meeting in Prague where the main focus was a Czech plan to procure up to 800,000 artillery shells from countries outside the European Union and provide them to Ukraine.
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Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Ukraine can expect the first delivery of tens of thousands of 155-millimeter shells in the next few days.
Fiala hosted the working dinner attended by Polish President Andrzej Duda, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina and said they would also meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
At a news conference ahead of the dinner, Fiala said the officials would discuss how their countries can help Ukraine "at this critical stage of its defense from Russian aggression."
They also would discuss to what extent the existing initiatives to arm Ukraine are working and what more could be done beyond the Czech initiative and a German initiative on supplying air defenses.
Under the Czech initiative, Czech government officials and private companies have worked to source ammunition rounds from around the world. Fifteen EU and NATO states have pledged around 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to fund the project.
The leaders said in a joint statement after the meeting that with the current financing, they "expect to ensure the donation of half a million rounds of artillery ammunition before the end of the year."
They added that they would continue the initiative as long as needed.
Duda pledged to support the transport of the artillery shells and described the situation on the Ukrainian-Russian front as difficult. He said Russia had the initiative in the war and is preparing another major offensive, and artillery will play a key role in defense.
"We need it (the ammunition) at the front lines as soon as possible," said Shmyhal, who also spoke about the initiative to provide Ukraine with air defense systems to secure its skies.
“We need, [at] a minimum, seven Patriot systems and modern combat aircraft also as soon as possible,” he said.
Fiala also commented on Ukraine's request to use weapons supplied by its Western allies against targets inside Russia.
"I see this as fully logical. Ukraine is a country that defends itself from Russian aggression. It needs to protect its territory and civilian population," he said. "Being a country under attack, it definitely has the full right to use all means for its defense."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and others have endorsed letting Ukraine use weapons on Russian targets, saying concerns that the use of Western weapons inside Russia would implicate the alliance in the war are unfounded.