Joseph Burrell’s warning letter to European ministers about the shortage of ammunition in Ukraine

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency, newspaper ” Tagus Anseiger wrote in an article: Two years after the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the European Union is still unable to supply Ukraine with enough artillery shells, “Ukraine soldiers are determined to fight, but they need ammunition, urgently and in large quantities.” . This is what EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote in a fiery letter to all the foreign and defense ministers of the 27 EU countries. The letter states: The lack of ammunition has weakened the Ukrainian army and “is costing its people lives. Burrell’s letter has been made available to the Swiss newspaper Tagus Anseiger.

Burrell wrote that the Europeans “assured in speeches” that they want to support Ukraine. “But it is clear that this is not enough. In this regard, this European official pointed to the promise of the European Union governments in March 2023 to deliver one million cannonballs to Ukraine within a year and wrote: The Union is far from this goal.

The European official’s letter said: The number of grenades delivered to the country by the end of March will be only 524,000 – only about half of the promised amount. According to him, the vast majority of delivered projectiles are not heavy 155 mm grenades, but smaller mortar grenades and are very ineffective from a military point of view.

This letter states: It has been known for months that the Europeans are having difficulty in supplying the artillery ammunition urgently needed by Ukraine. Russia currently produces four million shots per year; Europe can currently produce only a quarter of this amount. This has direct military consequences: the lack of ammunition is one of the main reasons that the Ukrainian army is under severe pressure at the front. Europe is to remove all obstacles, put aside all concerns and finally send more ammunition to Ukraine. “Action must be taken immediately,” he writes. His letter also shows the failure of the EU’s efforts to increase the arms industry to wartime levels and give the EU a significant role as a major buyer and distributor of ammunition.

For example, Borrell complains that the 60 framework contracts for the production of 155mm artillery ammunition that the European Defense Agency (EDA) with the company The various defense agreements concluded last year “are almost not used.” Contracts have been ordered. The target was a few hundred thousand bullets and the European Union wanted to subsidize the orders with one billion euros. But some major buyers, such as Germany, chose to bypass the EDA and buy directly from the industry due to concerns for their sovereignty in defense matters and fear of EU bureaucracy. At least some of the EDA framework agreements have now expired.

Borrell also criticized the insistence of some countries – notably France – that EU funds can only be used to buy ammunition that It is produced in Europe, used, criticized. The logic behind it is that European money should stay in Europe and boost domestic defense companies – even if their production capacity is limited and Ukraine suffers as a result.

Experts and diplomats complain that this deprives Europe of the opportunity to buy ammunition from non-European manufacturers such as South Korea or the United States, which can ship more bullets faster and more frequently, the letter says. =”text-align:justify”>This internal EU dispute has not yet been resolved. Many Central and Eastern European countries, as well as Germany, would like to at least weaken the “Buy European” rule. According to reports, the Czech Republic is currently seeking EU partner countries to jointly purchase around 800,000 artillery shells for Ukraine outside of Europe for $1.5 billion, bypassing all European institutions.

However, Josep Burrell declared that he could hardly do more than say how the Europeans could help Ukraine. He emphasized: The governments of the member countries must send special orders and pay for them. “Doing nothing is not an option,” the EU foreign policy chief warned.

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