PRAGUE (Reuters) – Highly-trained Ukrainian workers could fill thousands of job vacancies in the Czech arms industry to help meet demand triggered by the war in Ukraine, a Czech defence official said on Monday.
The Czech Republic has been one of the top weapons providers to Kyiv among NATO allies since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Deliveries, though, have badly depleted inventories and officials have warned it could take years to restock.
Some Czech arms producers have already signalled that they need to boost their workforce.
“(There) will be thousands of jobs,” Deputy Defence Minister Tomas Kopecny was quoted as saying by Czech Radio, suggesting that workers could come from Ukraine, whose own arms industry has been targeted by Russian attacks.
“It depends on how the production capacities of Czech companies or the production of joint Czech-Ukrainian arms factories will be increased.”
Kopecny said Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala had agreed to take in Ukrainian weapons experts when he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv in October.
The owner of major arms manufacturer Czechoslovak Group told Reuters last week that Ukraine was firing 40,000 shells per week from several hundred, Western-supplied howitzers against Russian invaders.
“Really a lot has been delivered to Ukraine,” Michal Strnad said. “But the fact is that today the Ukrainians are shooting less than they could because they do not have enough ammunition.”
(Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Crispian Balmer)
