The European Union goes a step further in its support for Ukraine and has agreed to find a way to supply Zelensky with more ammunition. The defense ministers of the member countries shared two days of informal meetings in Stockholm in which Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, and Josep Borrell, EU High Commissioner and organizer of the meeting, participated, to which they invited Oleksii Reznikov, Ukrainian Defense Minister.
It was he who on Wednesday morning asked his counterparts to find a way to cover their needs for the counteroffensive. This translates to a million shells and air defense systems. To provide this material, Borrell presented the member countries with a three-legged plan “that all go together, they cannot be done separately,” he warned at the press conference after the meeting. The first is to use 1 billion euros from the European Peace Support Fund for member countries to send 155mm shells from their own reserves to Ukraine. This could materialize in weeks, however, there are not as many reserves as material Ukraine needs. The second is that the countries agree to make joint orders, however, the Member States want to materialize these contracts with European manufacturers, in order to reactivate the national sector and not the one outside the Union. “The next few weeks are going to be very critical because the situation in some areas, especially in Bakhmut, where the fighting continues,” Borrell recalled at the press conference after the meeting. “If we go together, not only can we get better prices, but we can shorten lead times,” Borrell explained. The third point is to strengthen the European defense factories: “We are in times of war and, I am sorry to say, you have to have a war mentality.”
Although the ministers decided to specify the decisions to be taken on March 20 at their next meeting, they did assess “possible options to speed up the distribution and joint acquisition of military material, as well as boost the increase in European production capacity,” they explained from the Ministry of Defense in a statement sent this afternoon. “We have to send more, and do it faster,” Borrell insisted.
Minister Robles stressed at the meeting the importance of the aforementioned Fund, to which Spain has already contributed 300 million euros, to carry out this task.
At the meeting they also reinforced the commitment of the member countries to train more Ukrainian soldiers, a European mission in which Spain has an important participation. “By the end of the year we expect to have trained 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers and the countries have reaffirmed their commitment to continue training them. This is another proof of our support for Ukraine,” the senior envoy said.
Borrell recognized that the members of the States are not going to be convinced to give up their stocks if they do not have guarantees to restock their ammunition. For this reason, he said that the plan also involves increasing the capacity of the defense factories of the countries: “The three pillars go together so that there are fewer risks for the countries, they have to be sure that they will be able to fill their stocks again “. Reznikov conveyed one last message to them: “For Ukraine to achieve peace, it needs to win the war.”
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