EU mulls ways to ramp up ammunition production for Ukraine The European Union must find ways to quickly provide thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine or face the prospect of it losing the war against Russia, top EU diplomats warned Monday, as ammunition stocks in national EU armories dwindle.
“The most important, pressing issue today for the Ukrainian army is to have a continuous flow of ammunition,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said before chairing a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.
“If we fail on that, really, the result of the war is in danger.”Borrell said that Russian forces are firing about 50,000 rounds of artillery each day and that Ukraine’s supplies must be lifted to the same level. Other estimates suggest that Ukraine is firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells daily, around a third of Russia’s total one year into the war.
Most sought after, Borrell underlined, are 155mm artillery rounds.
Debate among the ministers focused on ways to make joint purchases of ammunition and use a special EU fund to provide extra financing. However, the defense industry requires solid, long-term orders to stand up and expand its production lines and cannot simply ramp up supplies overnight.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-nato-politics-european-union-europeEU urges members to offer stockpiles, contracts to UkraineThe European Union on Tuesday urged its member countries to provide more ammunition to Ukraine from their stockpiles and from any orders that they might have already placed with the defense industry to help defeat invading Russian forces.
According to some estimates, Ukraine is firing up to 6,000-7,000 artillery shells daily — about the same amount that a small European country orders in a peace-time year — but this is only around a third of the number of rounds that Russia is using, one year into the war.
“We have to act with a sense of urgency,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Borrell said that he had written to the bloc’s 27 defense ministers urging them to “give Ukraine priority” when it comes to weapons and ammunition.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-nato-politics-business-europe-0712640c3a14096e797c75c585453c3d
