Europe weighs artillery aid to Kyiv as Zelensky delays peace talks; Czech to decide program’s fate?

The Czech‑brokered scheme to buy artillery shells for Ukraine is now in limbo, with Prime Minister Andrej Babiš saying its fate will be decided at a January 7 meeting of the country’s Security Council amid corruption and cost concerns. He acknowledged that the initiative, which has delivered about 1.5 million shells to Kyiv in 2024 with a total of 1.8 million expected by the end of 2025, had “certainly been a good thing” in principle but questioned whether it had been implemented “without corruption.”