Netherlands contributes €100 million to buying ammunition for Ukraine

The Netherlands is contributing over 100 million euros to a Czech initiative to quickly purchase artillery shells for Ukraine. Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced this on Monday in Paris. He was there at the request of President Emmanuel Macron for a meeting with leaders and heads of state of “a broad group of countries” focused on aid to Ukraine.

“First of all, it is essential to deliver what we have promised and to see what else we can do,” Rutte wrote on X. “That is why the Netherlands is contributing over 100 million euros to the Czech initiative to quickly deliver hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine.” According to a spokesperson for the Prime Minister, this concerns new money agreed on last week.

Ukraine has needed ammunition for heavy artillery for a long time. The country has to be very careful with its grenades, while Russia bombards the Ukrainian lines to its heart’s content. The EU promised to deliver 1 million grenades around this time but has delivered only half of that, at most.

The Czech Republic looked for consignments of artillery ammunition elsewhere in the world and found it in countries like South Korea and Turkey. Together, they can supply almost half a million grenades in the short term, according to the government in Prague. France, in particular, has long demanded European production to get the European arms industry out of the doldrums. But French President Emmanuel Macron said the country now wants to participate.

According to Rutte, Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a long war in Ukraine, and it is, therefore, important to show “that we are steadfast and that time is not on his side.” He points out the importance of the bilateral security agreement with Ukraine for at least ten years, agreed upon last week.

At the end of last month, the government announced that it is giving Ukraine 87 million euros to purchase artillery shells and 10 million euros to strengthen its cyber defenses. The outgoing Cabinet also announced that it would invest another 25 million euros in the International Fund for Ukraine, which finances weapons for Kyiv.