The EU assured that it will produce 1 million shells for the Ukrainian Armed Forces by spring
The European Commission believes that the EU will be able to produce one million rounds of ammunition for Ukraine by spring of this year, despite the fact that the process has slowed down.
This was stated by Johanna Bernsel, spokesperson for the European Commission on Defense Industry, at a briefing in Brussels on Thursday.
“The European industry already has production capacities that far exceed one million artillery shells, and we will reach this goal by spring,” she said.
At the same time, the EU External Action Service spokesman Peter Stano said that as of the end of December, Ukraine had received more than 300,000 rounds of ammunition, and 3,300 missiles were delivered from existing stocks.
“We also have at least 180,000 shells for which orders have already been placed as of the end of December, and this number is increasing according to the contracts,” he explained.
At the same time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Estonia to put pressure on the EU to speed up the supply of one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine.
According to Reuters data from early December, the European Union member states have delivered to Ukraine only 480 thousand of the promised one million artillery shells by spring 2024.
In early December, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius reiterated his previous statement that the EU would not be able to deliver one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine until spring 2024, but promised that the situation would improve.
Earlier, the European Commission called on EU countries to put pressure on the defense industry to increase production of shells for Ukraine.
