The EU will buy ammunition for Kyiv and asks to send the national reserves now

Ukraine could lose the war against Russia if the European Union does not react and immediately send its national reserves of projectiles to Kyiv so that its army has a continuous flow of ammunition, the high representative of European Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, warned yesterday.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
20 February 2023 Monday 16:24
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The EU will buy ammunition for Kyiv and asks to send the national reserves now

Ukraine could lose the war against Russia if the European Union does not react and immediately send its national reserves of projectiles to Kyiv so that its army has a continuous flow of ammunition, the high representative of European Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, warned yesterday. "If we fail, the outcome of the war is at risk," he warned.

The European foreign ministers analyzed yesterday in Brussels the situation of the conflict and debated different formulas to respond to the pressing needs of Ukraine in this field. Above all, 155 caliber projectiles are urgently needed, the one used by the howitzers that are allowing the country to stand up to the Russian troops 12 months after the start of the war. The initiative launched by Estonia to carry out a joint purchase is making its way among the Twenty-seven and everything indicates that it will be adopted by the defense ministers at their next meeting, although the conclusion was that more will be needed to arrive on time.

A good part of the 3.6 billion euros of the European Peace Facility, the community instrument through which arms shipments to Ukraine are financed with national funds to date, have already been spent on financing projectiles. Now what it is about is placing joint orders to take advantage of economies of scale and placing large orders that allow the industry to increase its work rate and production capacity.

But warfare has changed in nature, Borrell noted: “It is now a war of position, with gunner duels consuming much more ammunition than a few months ago when it was a mobility war where fixed artillery played a minor role. Today Russia fires 50,000 artillery shells every day. I am not going to give the figure for Ukraine, but it is certainly lower” (according to some estimates, the figure would be about 6,000 artillery shells per day).

The fact that this type of artillery war requires more ammunition, coupled with the current long delivery times and the intensification of the Russian offensive, means that the new European initiative will not be enough to meet the current needs of Ukraine at this crucial moment. from the war. For this reason, the high representative of EU Foreign Policy stressed, “the best way to help them will be to share the reserves of the national armies. We must prioritize supplying the Ukrainian army as much as we can."

The Estonian government, which this Friday will host in Tallinn, one year after the start of the war, the leaders of the G-7, NATO and the European Commission to hold a commemorative event coinciding with the anniversary of its independence from Russia has taken a central role in discussions about the role of the EU in the war. At the last summit, its Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, presented a plan to the European Council to speed up ammunition orders, which has been well received by the rest of the countries.

The Baltic country's proposal consists of placing a joint order at the European level to buy one million shells for Kyiv, an operation valued at 4,000 million euros. "Russia spends in a day what the EU produces in a month, and with the current capabilities of the military industry we would only cover Ukraine's needs in six years, which is unacceptable," argued its foreign minister, Urmas Reinsalu. "A priori, the proposal does not sound bad at all to us, quite the opposite," said the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, in line with the majority position of the EU.