Ukraine has received a “green light” for close cooperation with the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Friday, while his foreign affairs colleague Dmytro Kuleba called on the EU to urgently provide the second tranche of the promised military aid. CNN and News.ro report.

“I am delighted to have received the green light for our close cooperation with NSPA, NATO’s procurement agency. This will include a review of national procurement and best advice (to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine),” Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on Twitter after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Friday’s meeting in Ramstein brought together Ukrainian officials and their counterparts in a coalition known as the Defense Contact Group of Ukraine.

“We need excellent defense procurement both to win the war and to be effective in the future,” Reznikov said.

“Ukraine has achieved an unprecedented level of operational interoperability with NATO. We are de facto already part of the security space of the Alliance. I expressed the hope that this will speed up political decisions regarding the integration of our country into NATO,” he added, while the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is demanding that his country receive a firm date for joining NATO at the summit. of the alliance, which will take place in July in Vilnius.

Reznikov’s comments came after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed on Friday that Ukraine would eventually become a “member of NATO.”

Kuleba is asking for the second part of EU aid for military procurement

On the other hand, a week after the European Union approved a 1 billion euro fund to compensate countries that sent ammunition to Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asked the EU to speed up the second tranche of aid.

In a message posted on Twitter on Friday, Dmytro Kuleba said he had a phone conversation with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, whom he thanked “for all EU defense aid, including the last billion euros earmarked for immediate needs in ammunition”.

Kuleba noted that he asked Borrell to “as soon as possible complete the discussion of the second tranche of the joint purchase of 1 billion euros to ensure security in Europe.”

The EU’s decision, adopted earlier this month, implemented the first part of the agreement reached by the bloc’s members on March 20 to speed up the supply and joint purchase of artillery ammunition, which Ukraine is rapidly using up in the fight against Russian aggression. The measure covers deliveries from existing stocks “or re-prioritization of existing orders” between February 9 and May 31, 2023, the EU said.

The EU assures Ukraine that it will deliver the promised ammunition, despite the setbacks

The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell on Friday assured the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba that the European Union will finally fulfill its promise to provide Ukraine with the promised artillery ammunition, although disagreements remain between the member countries regarding the conclusion of contracts for the production of shells, DPA agencies reported. EFE and Agerpres.

“I spoke with Dmytro Kuleba to confirm that the EU is fulfilling its obligations regarding the supply of ammunition to Ukraine,” Borrell wrote on Twitter after speaking with the Ukrainian foreign minister.

In his message, Borrell noted that “as of February 9, more than 66% of the first billion euros have been implemented,” without specifying whether this refers to the actual delivery of ammunition or the allocation of funds from the first billion euros component. aid plan to Ukraine. But he adds that “more than 16,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained” by EU states and “munitions and missiles worth more than 600 million euros have already been delivered” to Ukraine, promising that “the EU will do everything possible to honor and quickly fulfill” its obligations ‘knitting taken in this section.

What does the EU plan for the delivery of ammunition to Ukraine envisage

A group of 18 European states, 17 EU member states plus Norway, on March 20 approved a plan proposed by Borrell, which provides that they will urgently provide Ukraine with mainly 155 mm shells from their own stockpiles, funding of one billion. euros for this purpose, which Borrell referred to in Friday’s announcement, will be provided by member states’ contributions to a fund called the European Peace Fund (EPF). The states that offer these munitions will receive about 50-60% of the cost of the munitions from the EPF.

Later, according to the same plan, another billion euros from the EDF will be used by the European Defense Agency (EDA) or an association of at least three member states for the joint procurement of shells, also intended for Ukraine. and is also financed by the European countries participating in this program. Currently, there is disagreement among participating states regarding this component of the plan.

Thus, while France wants only European companies to receive contracts for this initiative, other member states, including Poland, also support the involvement of companies from third countries such as the US, UK, Australia, South Korea, etc. Moreover, the European defense industry would hardly be able to produce such a number of shells in the agreed time period.

These first two components of the EU plan together aim to supply Ukraine with one million rounds over 12 months, mostly 155 mm rounds.

The third component of the plan envisages increasing the production capacity of a number of 12 EU arms manufacturers in order to restore the stocks of EU countries, depleted by the aid provided to the Ukrainian army, and to continue supplies to Ukraine.

Some military analysts believe that insufficient ammunition is the main factor delaying a major counteroffensive announced by Ukraine to try to retake territory occupied by Russia. According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, the Ukrainian army needs 90,000-100,000 shells every month to “deter the enemy” and to be able to launch a counteroffensive against Russian troops.

• Romania will participate in the EU program for the purchase of ammunition for Ukraine / What the agreement of the European states provides

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