A decision to redirect part of the funding originally allocated to other forms of assistance for Ukraine to the PURL program, announced by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš during the NATO Summit in Ankara, has sparked debate within the country's ruling coalition.
According to Ukrinform, Czech Defense Minister Jaromír Zuna, a member of the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Babiš that the matter had been handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"This was the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had to act very quickly and find a way to use these funds while remaining within the coalition agreement and contributing to the PURL program administered by the United States. Therefore, I do not consider this to be such a fundamentally serious issue," Zuna said.
However, SPD leader and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Tomio Okamura took a different stance. He told journalists that his party is "fundamentally opposed to Czech taxpayers' money being used to purchase weapons for Ukraine."
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