Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) EU defense and foreign ministers are discussing plans to send more weapons to Ukraine as Kyiv calls for more military aid.
Ukraine wants the EU to provide it with 350,000 artillery shells per month, hoping to launch a counter-offensive later this year, according to France24 reporting on Monday.
At the meeting in Brussels, EU ministers are to debate initiatives aimed at sending more military supplies to Ukraine and speeding up deliveries as well as increasing the production of weapons.
Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, stressed “time is of the essence: we need to deliver more artillery ammunition and we need to deliver faster.”
EU’s two initiatives are worth roughly 2 billion euros, with the first initiative focusing on incentives for bloc members to send ammunition from their own stocks.
The second one includes a joint order of 155mm artillery shells worth approximately 1 billion euros and is part of a broader joint procurement push. Joint weapon purchases would present a significant new step towards the centralization of military decision-making for the EU.
While bloc members disagree over some proposals, diplomats expressed the belief that ministers would iron out remaining issues and approve the initiatives at the meeting on Monday.
Proposed targets
Estonia previously pushed for spending 4 billion euros on artillery shells for Ukraine and is now calling on the bloc to provide Kyiv with 1 million shells, while other bloc members have not committed to specific targets.
An EU official pointed out that the bloc does not know how depleted bloc members’ stocks are after a year of sending aid to Ukraine, but noted “we think that there is still some ammunition” available.
EU member states have committed military aid to Ukraine worth 12 billion euros, of which a joint fund provided 3.6 billion.
The EC warned that Ukraine was firing shells faster than its Western allies can produce them, calling on EU companies to switch to “war economy mode.” The bloc is hoping that a large joint order of shells would incentivize the industry to invest in the expansion of production capacities and help to meet Ukraine’s needs.
