The European Union admits the failure of the plan to send ammunition to Ukraine

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “De Presse” newspaper, in March 2023, the European Union set its goal to deliver one million pieces of ammunition to Ukraine within a year. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has now announced that EU countries can only deliver 524,000 pieces.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday At an informal meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels, he admitted that the EU will not reach its goal of sending one million ammunition to Ukraine by March. According to Burrell, 330,000 parts have been shipped from the EU to Ukraine by the beginning of 2024.

In March 2023, the EU set its goal of delivering one million parts. Ammunition to Ukraine within a year. But the numbers change every day, Burrell stressed. He expects 524,000 units to be produced by March, which means about half of the EU target will be met. According to him, the goal of one million is expected to be achieved by the end of 2024. In addition to the joint purchase and supply of ammunition by all EU member states, the European ministers also discussed strengthening the defense industry in the Union. After this meeting, Burrell emphasized that the production capacities will increase.

Thus, the European Union has accepted that its ambitious plans to supply artillery shells to Ukraine have failed. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on the sidelines of a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels that only slightly more than half of the promised amount of one million rounds would likely be sent by March. Now the new goal is to reach one million people at least by the end of this year. According to Burrell, EU member states have pledged to deliver about 630,000 more rounds between March and then. Then there will be more than a million.

“Rostam Omjerov”, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, also joined the event via video. In the press conference after the Council meeting, “Joseph Borrell”, the head of the EU’s foreign policy, once again demanded that Ukraine needs more military support from the EU. This issue will also be an important issue in the special meeting on Thursday. According to the Reuters news agency, the draft conclusion states: The European Council also emphasizes the urgent need to accelerate the delivery of ammunition and missiles. According to Burrell, the EU wants to train 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers, bringing the total to 60,000 by the end of the summer.

On March 20 last year, the EU countries Europe promised Ukraine to provide one million new artillery shells within 12 months for defensive war against Russia. This promise should be organized from the reserves of the member states, but also through new joint procurement projects and prevent the shortage of armed forces of Ukraine.

According to the latest statistics of the foreign service of the Union Europe, only about 330,000 of the promised cannonballs have been delivered so far. A further 200,000 are expected to follow over the 12-month period. Borrell said: “In this case, we will probably achieve a little more than 52% of the goal.” These ambitious plans will fail. The German official said in November: These donations will not reach one million. This must be assumed. He cited the insufficient production capacity as the reason.

However, the politicians of countries such as Estonia and also Joseph Burrell repeatedly stated other reasons. Borrell has repeatedly emphasized that he does not think the problem is industrial capacity, noting that significant amounts of ammunition produced in the EU have been delivered to other countries due to existing contracts. Therefore, the Estonian government proposed, among other things, negotiations with these buyer countries or the purchase of ammunition from third countries.

Borrell also announced that, for this year, EU countries have so far pledged a total of 21 billion euros in bilateral arms aid to Ukraine. Also by launching bilateral arms aid, Burrell responded to the federal government’s request for a general review. Germany has promised Kiev to receive seven billion euros this year, which is about a third of bilateral military aid. He wanted to increase the national military assistance. He said: “We must strengthen our resolve and redouble our efforts to ensure that we maintain our support for as long as necessary.” In addition to Schultz, the heads of government of Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic also They signed this statement.

Meanwhile, Boris Pistorius, the Federal Minister of Defense of Germany, also criticized the dispute over the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. This German official In this regard, he said that he was “tired” of the ongoing discussions during the budget debates in the Bundestag. He emphasized that although Germany is the second largest supporter of Ukraine, the only discussion is about a special weapons system – “as if this is an issue.” is whether we offer everything we can or whether we give ourselves a little freedom and responsibility in making decisions.

Taurus is one of the most modern Air force missiles and can destroy targets such as shelter complexes even from great heights and distances. Kiev has repeatedly requested these long-range missiles because these missiles can give it an edge in the fight against Russian aggression.

At the beginning of October, German Chancellor Olaf Schulz decided not to deliver this weapon to Ukraine for the time being. The fear behind this issue is that due to the 500 km range of these missiles, Russian soil will be hit by German weapons and Germany will enter the conflict.

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