A month after President Volodimir Zelensky’s visit to Brussels, where he conveyed first-hand the pressing material needs of the Ukrainian army, the European Union has given the green light to the formula to speed up the shipment of howitzers to Kyiv. “One million rounds of artillery ammunition in the next twelve months”, specified the high representative of European Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, who described as “historic” the decision reached today by the Foreign and Defense Ministers of the Twenty-seven .
The agreement, negotiated in record time taking into account that defense continues to be a national responsibility and the complexity of any arms and ammunition purchase operation, plans to dedicate 2,000 million euros from the European Fund for Peace, the instrument through the that the purchase of arms for this country has been channeled, to the implementation of a plan with simultaneous actions in the short, medium and long term with which to get 155 and 152 mm projectiles to Kyiv as soon as possible, while the production capacity of the local European industry is reinforced.
In the immediate future, the fastest way to get ammunition to Ukraine is through the donation of national arsenals or the donation of orders that are about to be delivered. The EU will dedicate 1,000 million euros to the replacement of this ammunition. Meanwhile, a plan will be launched to make the first joint purchases of arms (ammunition, at this time) in the history of the EU, an operation for which another 1,000 million euros will be dedicated for the moment.
The acquisition may be made through the European Defense Agency (there are already 15 countries, including Spain, that have joined the project and more are expected to join). Another option is to carry them out through coalitions of countries that can renegotiate the contracts already signed with the industry to increase orders. It is expected that once the purchases are signed, the delivery of ammunition will take place within six or eight months.
NATO has also sounded the alarm in recent weeks about the urgency of providing ammunition cartridges to Ukraine. It is estimated that his army fires up to eight times more ammunition per month than the European industry is currently capable of producing, some 400,000 units per month, when national arms companies currently only have the capacity to produce 25,000.
Given the reality of these figures, the debate arose as to whether purchases should be made only from arms companies located in the European Union or if, for the sake of speed, when this is not possible, it is possible to sign agreements with companies from third countries, such as USA, Israel or South Korea, option defended for example by the Netherlands. This morning, at the beginning of the meeting, Borrell called on the ministers to be “pragmatic” and finally, in order not to lengthen the discussions, it was agreed that for now the purchases will be limited to companies from the EU and Norway, the position defended in particular for France. There are currently 15 companies in the EU manufacturing 155mm howitzers.
The third leg of the plan presented by the European External Action Service to the governments aims to increase the production capacity of the European arms industry so that national arsenals can be replenished as soon as possible and maintain a sustained supply for the Ukrainian forces, for which that joint purchases will be encouraged, which will help companies to invest and strengthen their projects. The heads of State and Government of the EU will support the agreement at the summit that will take place this Thursday and Friday in Brussels and in which they will talk about once again increasing the allocations to the European Fund for Peace.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, who participated in the meeting by videoconference, thanked the EU for this decision, which “marks a turning point”. It is, he said via Twitter, “exactly what was needed: urgent deliveries and lasting pooled purchases. The EU once again demonstrates its resolute leadership in the face of the historic challenges posed by Russia’s aggression,” Kuleba himself underlined. day that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has traveled to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin.
