Did the Czech Republic deal with Greece to buy ammunition banned by international conventions? No, that's not true: Czech and Greek officials said that the ammunition in question - to be sent to Ukraine as part of its initiative to help the war-torn country replenish its ammunition supplies - is used to generate smoke screen, a legal use of the white phosphorus substance it contains. A Czech government spokesperson told Lead Stories the type of ammunition that Greece can provide is not banned and added the Czech government adheres to and complies with international conventions on weapons.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on April 17, 2024. The text overlay on the video, in Czech, reads, translated to English by Lead Stories staff: "Fiala buys shells containing white phosphorus in Greece" and "These shells are banned by the UN!!!"
The video contains an excerpt from a weekly political TV debate, showing Radek Koten, a Czech lawmaker from the opposition populist party Freedom and Direct Democracy, who says in Czech, as translated:
The initiative of Fiala's government in regard to the supply of artillery shells, unfortunately at the present time has gone so far that the Czech Republic buys shells with white phosphorus from Greece, which is somehow on the list of things that should not be used in war conflicts...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Apr 23 07:42:32 2024 UTC)
The excerpt from Koten's speech shown in the TikTok video comes from a weekly political show, 360 Degrees, on CNN Prima News TV channel, and this segment is from April 15, 2024 (archived here). Koten (archived here) commented on the Czech initiative to purchase shells for Ukraine as most European nations had already depleted the stocks they could provide. Koten also submitted a parliamentary question to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala on April 18, 2024 (archived here), asking him to explain information received from a Greek lawmaker that the Czech Republic would purchase white phosphorus ammunition from Greece for Ukraine. Fiala has a 30-day limit to provide a written answer, according to the rules of procedure of the lower house.
The use of white phosphorus violates international treaties on conventional weapons in one specific case: when it is intentionally used as an incendiary weapon against civilians. Other uses, such as illuminating the battlefield at night or creating a smoke screen, are not prohibited, as the WHO website explains. White phosphorus (archived here), or tetraphosphorus, is a wax-like toxic substance that can ignite rapidly spreading fires or produce thick smoke over large areas. It is harmful to humans if they are exposed to it, but according to the WHO website (archived here), it is not classified as a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) (here is the list of the substances prohibited under the treaty, that doesn't include tetraphosphorus), because it acts as an "incendiary agent" and not through its chemical effect on humans. The WHO also states that the only use of the substance that may violate conventions on incendiary weapons is when "it is used, on purpose, as an incendiary weapon directly against humans in a civilian setting." In fact, Protocol III of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons "prohibits the use of weapons primarily designed to set fire to objects or cause burn injuries against civilians."
The Greek daily newspaper Efsyn reported on April 4, 2024 (archived here) that Greece will sell white phosphorus ammunition to the Czech Republic for Ukraine. A similar report also appeared in another news website, ERT News, on April 2, 2024 (archived here), quoting a Greek communist member of parliament, Nikos Papanastasis (archived here), who criticized the Greek government's decision to sell white phosphorus ammunition to the Czech Republic, saying it violated international treaties, according to the news website.
The Greek Defence Ministry issued a statement responding to the Efsyn newspaper article (archived here), saying that the ammunition mentioned above is "smoke generating, not incendiary" and is used only to restrict the observation capabilities of the enemy on the battlefield, not to be used against human personnel. In the press release, the ministry cites the aforementioned "Protocol III of the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons" (archived here) as "explicitly stating" that such ammunition is not classified as incendiary.
Czech government spokeswoman Lucie Jesatkova (archived here) responded to a query from Lead Stories by e-mail on April 18, 2024, saying - in Czech, as translated by Lead Stories - that the "Czech Republic strictly complies with international conventions and even in this case, the subject was not banned ammunition, which is confirmed by the statement of the Greek side."
The Czech government, with Czech President Petr Pavel, started an ammunition initiative for Ukraine (archived here) at the beginning of 2024, procuring additional ammunition purchases by European states from other countries.
