The Czech Republic agreed to supply additional Czech-made military hardware to Ukraine with financial backing from Denmark and the Netherlands, according to a “Letter of Intent” signed by the three countries on the periphery of Contact Group on Ukraine at U.S. Ramstein air base in Germany on Tuesday, September 19th.
Under the agreement, announced first in a press release published by the Czech Ministry of Defense, “tanks, howitzers, small arms, infantry fighting vehicles, air defense capacities and means of electronic warfare or ammunition from [Czech] companies in our defense industry” will be supplied to Ukraine “in the coming months and in 2024.”
The Czech Ministry of Defense sees this agreement as a significant opportunity for Czech businesses in the weapons manufacturing sector. “These will be projects with a great economic benefit for the Czech Republic, including job opportunities for our citizens,” the deputy minister of defense said.
“The goal is to establish long-term cooperation and support for the armed forces of Ukraine,” Czech Deputy Minister of Defense Daniel Blažkovec wrote, adding that the first sub-project will be the donation of 15 modernized T-72 EA battle tanks, which he said would make their way to the front lines in near future.
Previously, the Czech Republic has taken part in a similar joint initiative, providing Ukraine with 45 modernized T-72 tanks as a part of a collaborative project with the United States and the Netherlands.
The “Ukraine Defense Contact Group,” also known as the “Ramstein Group” or the “Ramstein Format” is a format that refers to a series of NATO-led meetings that have served as a coordination platform for directing Western military hardware and funding to Ukraine. The initial meetings concerning Ukraine at Ramstein took place on April 26th, 2022.
The group, comprising defense ministers from several dozen countries from the U.S.-led collective West, has met 11 times at Ramstein Air Bases, NATO headquarters in Brussels, and by video conference.
The Czech Agency for Intergovernmental Defense and Cooperation, which is part of the Ministry of Defense, oversees the coordination of industrial projects in support of Ukraine such as this one.
“Our task is to coordinate between all the actors involved. We get information from Ukraine about the current need for equipment, Czech companies present their offers to us, and then we present everything to our foreign partners, who finance the project,” Ales Vytečka, the agency’s director, explained.