NATO has signed a €1.1 billion contract for 155mm artillery shells, the alliance announced on Tuesday, with some of the shells to be delivered to Ukraine after it complained that a shortage of ammunition was hampering its war efforts, Reuters reported.

“The war in Ukraine has become a battle of ammunition,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg after the signing ceremony at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.

NATO entered into this agreement on behalf of several allies, who will either transfer the shells to Ukraine or use them to replenish their own depleted stockpiles.

Buying in bulk ensures a lower price for buyers.

The contract is likely to include about 220,000 artillery shells, with the first deliveries expected in late 2025, a NATO official told Reuters.

Ammunition will be supplied by French arms manufacturer Nexter and Germany’s Junghans, an industry source said.

Stoltenberg: We do not see a direct threat from Russia against a NATO country

Stoltenberg also said on Tuesday that he did not see an immediate military threat from Russia to any member of the alliance, but that it supported deterrence with the biggest military exercises in decades starting later this week.

“We’re doing all of this to make sure we have the … strength to remove any room for miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our willingness to defend every inch of NATO territory, and while we’re doing that, nothing will happen. an attack on NATO territory,” the NATO Secretary General said in Brussels.