European Union states have placed orders for only about 60,000 new projectiles from the program approved in March, which provides for the delivery of one million projectiles to Ukraine within a year, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources in the European Defense Agency (AEA). .

This program is particularly focused on the supply of 155mm shells — vital in the war, with Ukrainian and Russian artillery consuming thousands of rounds each day — obtained under a scheme that combines supplies from existing EU stockpiles, boosting the production of their defense industries. and purchases from other sources.

But, according to the EU, about 480,000 projectiles have been received so far, four months before the deadline by which the entire amount of one million projectiles must be delivered to Ukraine.

In September, the European Defense Agency reported that seven EU member states, including Lithuania, Denmark and Luxembourg, had placed new orders under a European program agreed in March. The agency did not specify the volume of these orders, but internal sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity that in total it is about 60,000 new shells.

“The European military industry does not have the technical capabilities to produce the required amount of ammunition”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also admitted last month that the goal of one million shells delivered to Ukraine by March next year will not be achieved.

Government officials and representatives of the defense sector explain the failure to achieve this goal in different ways. Thus, while some believe that the governments of many EU countries have not fulfilled their own promises to support Ukraine and have not made enough efforts to do so, others believe that the European military industry simply does not have the technical capabilities to produce the amount of ammunition that politicians demand. And the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, estimated last month that it is more about technical problems than about a political nature.

Read also:

• A sad failure for the EU? It is unlikely that Ukraine will receive all the million shells promised by the EU by March – Bloomberg
• The EU military aid plan for Ukraine: almost 224,000 shells were delivered / the goal is far from 1 million shells
• Zelensky: The war between Israel and Hamas slowed down the supply of shells to Ukraine
• How the EU seeks to provide promised military aid to Ukraine (synthesis)

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