Jan Lopatka

PRAGUE, April 8 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic has delivered tanks, multiple rocket launchers, howitzers and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine among military shipments that have reached hundreds of millions of dollars and will continue, two Czech defence sources said.

Ukraine has repeatedly called on the West to urgently supply more weapons, especially heavy equipment, as Russian forces regroup in the country's east for new offensive after withdrawing from around the capital Kyiv and other regions.

NATO members provide a wide variety of weapon systems to the nation, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Thursday.

The Czech Republic, a former Soviet satellite and part of then Czechoslovakia has spare equipment that Ukrainian forces know. tlauncher.club They also have a defence industry that is focused on upgrading and trading in such weapons. It has been an active EU nation in supporting Ukraine.

Sources from defence confirmed to Reuters that five T72 tanks had been shipped, along with five BVP-1 or BMP-1 infantry combat vehicles. The images of the rail cars were captured on Twitter and in video footage this week.

"We have been supplying heavy equipment for several weeks - I am generalizing it but it is obvious that this includes tanks as well as infantry fighting machines and howitzers." A senior defense official stated.

"What has left the Czech Republic are the hundreds of millions of dollar."

The sources declined to discuss numbers of weapons supplied.

The senior defence official said the Czechs were also supplying a range of anti-aircraft weaponry.

Lukas Visingr (an independent defence analyst) stated that short-range air defense systems Strela-10 or SA-13 Gopher in NATO terminology were seen on a train bound for Ukraine. He was referring to a report in Czech weekly, respekt.cz.

The Defence Ministry declined to comment on concrete military aid. Reuters has reached out to Ukraine's government for comment, although it is not accustomed to providing information about weapons shipments.

One agreed shipment publicised by the German government includes 56 Czechoslovak-made infantry fighting vehicles that used to be operated by East Germany and by Sweden.

They were later sold by Czech arms firm EXCALIBUR ARMY to the Czech defence and industrial holding CZECHOSLOVAK GROUP to be used in Ukraine's supply of Czech arms.

Concrete shipments were not mentioned by the company. It stated that its supplies since the war began included heavy equipment.

FUNDRAISING FOR WEAPONS

According to the Embassy website, the Czech program to ship weapons includes money raised through public fundraising by the Ukrainian Embassy, which has raised $37.45 Million.

The embassy did NOT respond to our request for comment.

The Czech government also provides funding in the form gifts of equipment and ammunition to its army - which are estimated to be worth more than $44.51 million - as well as from other countries, the defence official said.

Sources indicated that the source sourcing of light and heavy weaponry is done from army stocks and through Czech defense companies and their network with contacts in other nations.

Visingr said the Czech army had possibly around 60 tanks and a three-digit number of fighting vehicles and CZECHOSLOVAK GROUP had even more pieces of heavy equipment in storage that could be potentially supplied to Ukraine.

He stated that it is a plus that much of the equipment hasn't been modernized in Ukraine due to time constraints.

"This is a positive, not a negative thing." These are things Ukrainians are very familiar with.

The Czech Republic has also been in talks with Ukraine about repairing damaged Ukrainian equipment.

According to the defense source, it could be equipment from Ukrainian storage that required repairs or equipment damaged during fighting. The source stated that Czech repair companies were being consulted to discuss their options. ($1 = 22.