Long-term supply contracts, subsidy programs for ammunition manufacturers, more money for the European Peace Fund: the EU is doing a lot to keep its promise to deliver ammunition to Ukraine.
It’s a big promise: the European Union intends to make one million projectiles available to Ukraine by the beginning of next year. In March, Estonia’s Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur gave the impetus for this.
Above all, Ukraine needs 155 mm caliber grenades and anti-aircraft missiles for the modern weapon systems supplied by the NATO countries so that the attacked country can defend itself against the Russian army and continue its counter-offensive to liberate the occupied territories.
“It would be nice if we had more ammunition available for this, preferably 90,000 or 100,000 rounds per month,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
The EU produces 300,000 artillery shells a year
For some time now, the armed forces of Ukraine have been using significantly more ammunition than is produced in Europe. The European armaments industry recently produced around 300,000 artillery shells per year. That’s not enough for the promised million. “Time is pressing. We have to deliver more and be faster”, says EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
In order to ensure supplies in the short term, the EU member states deliver ammunition from their own stocks, which, however, are gradually running out and have to be refilled, at least as far as the particularly common calibers are concerned. One billion euros from the European Peace Fund is available for this.
With another billion, the EU wants to boost joint ammunition purchasing for Ukraine, either through the European Defense Agency or – as the German government is doing – through national agreements with the manufacturers, “because that saves money and time.”
The experts in the European External Action Service are now seeing great progress: more than 220,000 grenades have already been made available to Ukraine from its own stocks, as well as 2,100 missiles for anti-aircraft systems such as Patriot or Iris-T, according to the request ARD radio in Brussels.
worth millions funding programs
And: The promised million projectiles can be achieved. Because the EU is also trying to increase production capacities. In order to give the industry a helping hand, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has launched a 500 million euro subsidy program for ammunition manufacturers.
For NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, too, it is of central importance that more ammunition be produced and purchased quickly. He calls on the Allies to conclude long-term supply contracts so that the armaments companies have planning security and can expand their factories accordingly.
“This is now a war of attrition. It’s about getting arms and ammunition to the soldiers on the front line, so NATO is working closely with industry and has also agreed new stockpiling targets for the allies. We need to do more with that Ukraine gets what it needs and so that we can replenish our stocks,” said Stoltenberg.
Shaded: territories occupied by Russia
European Peace Fund increased
In order to permanently finance the ammunition and weapons aid for Ukraine, the EU has just increased the European Peace Fund, from which most of the arms deliveries to Kiev are paid, by 3.5 billion euros.
NATO is also intensively discussing increasing defense spending. Against the background of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the western military alliance wants to significantly tighten the requirements at its summit next week in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
So far it has been agreed that every member country will invest two percent of its economic power in defense and armaments by next year at the latest. That should be the absolute lower limit in the future. Currently, the so-called two percent target is only achieved by seven of the 31 NATO countries.