Czech Ammo Surge: How Prague’s Big Bet Might Flip the Artillery War in Ukraine

1.8 Million Shells for Ukraine in 2025 Alone

Courtesy press service of Ukraine

If you’re looking for the quiet disruptor in Ukraine’s war for survival, forget the Pentagon.

Instead, look a little farther east, to Prague, where, while the US was busy issuing statements, the Czechs quietly built the world’s most effective artillery procurement machine.

The headline? A promised 1.8 million shells for Ukraine in 2025 alone. That’s not a typo. That’s a European coalition, led by Czechia, dragging the continent’s defense establishment into the 21st century, one crate of high-explosive at a time.

Let’s rewind the tape. Back in early 2022, Ukraine was losing the artillery war by a factor of ten. For every shell a Ukrainian gunner fired, the Russians answered with ten, turning Donbas and the southern steppe into a moonscape and grinding down Ukraine’s ability to maneuver or even hold the line.

For Russia, it was textbook Soviet firepower: drown the enemy in steel, then send in the conscripts to mop up. For Ukraine, it was a daily lesson in logistics, improvisation, and just how thin “Western solidarity” could stretch when push came to shove.

The Czechs, watching this in real time, decided to do something nobody else in Europe seemed willing to attempt: actually find the shells, buy them, and ship them to Ukraine; no grandstanding, no endless debates, just practical procurement at a scale that would make most NATO logisticians weep with envy.

Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, with all the understated swagger of a guy who’s been right before, went on record: Prague’s got the funding locked for 2025, shipments are ramping up, and, assuming the rest of Europe doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel, the supply will keep flowing into 2026.

Now, 1.8 million is a bit of a battlefield rebalancing act. Two years ago, the firepower disparity was so bad that Ukrainian gunners would joke about “one shot, one prayer.”

Today, thanks to Czechia and a coalition of eleven countries, that ratio is down to one Ukrainian round for every two Russian. That’s “closing the gap” and tilting the board back toward even odds. Suddenly, Russian infantry has to worry about counter-battery fire again, and Russian logistics officers are having to explain to Moscow why it’s getting harder to pound Ukrainian positions with impunity.

These shells aren’t coming from Europe’s dusty Cold War stockpiles, at least not entirely. Czech procurement teams have been scouring the globe, third countries, discreet brokers, even some with names you won’t find on an EU map. The strategy is simple: keep the pipeline anonymous, keep the shells moving, and keep Russia guessing. If a batch of 122mm or 155mm rounds shows up on the front and no one claims credit, all the better.

It’s a logistics war, and Prague is winning.