This week, the European Union is finalizing a plan, with an estimated cost of 2 billion euros, to jointly purchase artillery ammunition, which Ukraine desperately needs to counter the onslaught of the Russian military.

This plan is expected to supply the Ukrainian armed forces with at least one million 155-mm shells and replenish the strategic stocks of EU countries, some of which are on the verge of depletion.

“We don’t have white smoke yet,” a European official admitted yesterday Sunday. “Member states, the Netherlands and Italy, still have reservations, but there is no blockage,” he added, adding that an agreement “at the councils of foreign and defense ministers” is expected today in Brussels, after which the agreement will be submitted for consideration. leaders for approval from the 27 at their meetings on Thursday and Friday.

The EU is responding with a plan to an urgent appeal issued March 9 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose forces see their firepower limited by ammunition shortages.

“We have entered the most dangerous phase of the war. The Russians have amassed over 300,000 fighters to launch the attack and we need to help the Ukrainian forces fight back,” a senior European official explained.

Rearmament of the EU

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Rostov-on-Don (southern Russia), near the border with Ukraine, with senior military leaders, in particular with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

“Time is running out: we need to deliver more artillery ammunition, and we must do it faster,” insists Giuseppe Borrell, EU foreign policy chief.

He is asking member states to use the 2 billion euros allocated in December to the European Peace Mechanism, a fund that has been used since the start of the war to bring weapons and ammunition to Kiev, to buy ammunition for Ukraine.

According to him, one billion euros will be spent on replenishing the ammunition stocks of member states at a price of between 1,000 and 1,300 euros per projectile. Today, 4,000 euros are spent on each projectile and prices are rising.

“Ukrainians want ammunition for their artillery and missiles for their air defense, and the EU will deliver them to them,” a member state spokesman said. The agreement provides for deliveries on May 31, he said.

Stock levels are a military secret, according to a senior European official, but “we believe there is still ammunition left and we are keen to encourage their delivery” to Ukraine.

The second billion will go to the joint purchase of 155-mm shells intended for Ukrainian artillery. The contracts are scheduled for September and the goal is to reduce the delivery time to 6-8 months.

The third aspect of Mr. Borrell’s plan aims to increase the production capacity of more than ten companies producing artillery ammunition in the EU in order to “replenish the stocks of EU countries and continue to supply Ukrainian troops.”

The war will “go on”

“This war tends to drag on, and the needs of the Ukrainian forces are very great,” the European diplomat explained. “The EU needs to rearm,” he insisted.

“The goal of delivering at least a million 155-mm shells to Ukraine is something on which there is a broad consensus,” the European diplomat assured.

“Stock reductions and deliveries continue,” explained a member state representative. “We don’t know everything that Member States are doing, they don’t all ask us (money to) replenish their supplies,” acknowledges the services of Giuseppe Borrell.

European military assistance to Ukraine is estimated at 12 billion euros, of which 3.6 billion through the European Peace Fund, which is 63% financed by contributions from Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

The Europeans will also train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers by “the end of April,” according to the official program.

An agreement in principle on new funding of €3.5bn to replenish the Mechanism’s coffers is considered a given, and “discussion could start this week, according to a European official. “Let’s go,” insisted the European diplomat.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.