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Ukraine’s allies have lined up nearly all the funding required for the Czech initiative to purchase hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds for Ukraine outside of the EU, the agency Bloomberg reported citing a Czech government official familiar with the arrangements. The commitments mean that the shells could be delivered to Ukraine in a matter of weeks. The precise timing would depend on contractual and delivery schedules, Bloomberg wrote.

Czech President Petr Pavel said earlier that Prague had received commitments to support the 200 million euro project financially from around 15 states including Britain, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala has said his cabinet is ready to try to find consensus across the political spectrum for the government’s pension reform, but complained that the leading opposition party ANO had refused to negotiate the proposal in the past. The prime minister was reacting to a statement by President Pavel earlier this week urging for broad political consensus on the long-awaited pension reform. The opposition parties have complained that they were left out of the debate and have labelled the proposed reform “anti-social”.

The government’s proposal envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age linked to a higher life expectancy, a different basis for calculating old-age pensions, a lower indexation of pensions and a minimum pension amounting to 20 percent of the average wage. It would also enable early retirement for people in demanding professions.

The Czech government has disclosed plans for the construction of a gigafactory for the production of batteries for electric cars worth CZK 200 billion by a foreign investor in the Karviná region in the east of the country. The project should bring new jobs, contribute to energy security and increase the Czech Republic's competitiveness, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said after Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. He declined to provide further details about the investment saying that the agreement with the investor does not allow him to disclose the company’s name.

Over 3,000 farmers are staging a major protest action in Prague on Thursday disrupting traffic and spreading manure outside the Office of the Government. Like their European counterparts they are protesting against rising costs, heavy regulation, cheap goods from Ukraine and the EU's Green Deal.

Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný said in reaction to the protests that the government is aware of the serious problems farmers face, but that it will not act under pressure. He said the government had met some of their demands to the extent that the budget allowed and was ready to negotiate further, but warned that there were limits to what the government could do.

Ahead of the protests the government announced plans to increase funding to support animal welfare at livestock farms this year and will next year support rural employment with CZK 2 billion in social insurance discounts for farm workers.