BRUSSELS — Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense of the European Union agreed on monday spending up to 2 billion euros, or 2.14 billion dollars, to supply Ukraine with much-needed artillery shells, replenish its own national stockpile and boost European production of ammunition.
As is usual for the bloc and its 27 member states, the details of the deal remain to be discussed and questions remain about the speed of response, a key issue as Ukraine prepares for a counterattack. spring.
Still, the deal marks another step forward for the European Union in joint cooperation with Ukraine and in an area – defense – that member states largely consider a national priority.
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the bloc’s head of foreign policy, praised the deal. “We are taking an important step toward fulfilling our promise to supply Ukraine with more ammunition,” he said. said on Twitter.
On Monday, 17 member states, plus Norway, also agreed to cooperate with an organization in Brussels, the European Defense Agency, on the joint procurement of ammunition, in particular 155mm artillery shells. which Ukraine is in dire need of.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany would also allow other countries to enter into contracts with German defense manufacturers because speed is of the essence. “Our goal is to deliver a significant amount of weapons to Ukraine before the end of the year,” he said.
His Estonian counterpart, Hanno Pevkur, said: “There are a lot of details to be worked out, but for me the most important thing is that we have to conclude these negotiations and that shows me a thing: If there’s a will, there’s a way.”
But even one of the strongest advocates of helping Ukraine, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis of Lithuania, acknowledged that the one million round target this year, originally proposed by Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas , is ambition. “It is possible that we cannot achieve it,” he said.
With Ukraine running out of shells faster than the West can produce, the Europeans are pushing for a three-part program.
The first, most urgent part, involves pressing member states to send shells from their own dwindling reserves to Ukraine, using 1 billion euros to reimburse them.
It remains unclear how many cartridges are in the EU stockpile, as some member states have refused to disclose their stockpiles, in part for security reasons. And countries are keen to preserve some of their own stockpiles in case war suddenly escalates.
The new European currency is intended to increase willingness to part with those shells.
Kyiv’s main need is 155mm ammunition for Western guns. Ukraine says it wants 350,000 rounds of ammunition per month, but arms manufacturers in the European Union can only produce about 650,000 rounds a year in total.
That is why the second part of the plan involves another 1 billion euros for arms manufacturers to speed up the production of artillery shells, both to replenish the EU’s stockpile and provide more for Ukraine. But that won’t be easy and quick: New contracts must be drawn up and signed, now-rare raw materials for making explosives must be sourced, and factories built.
Officials in Brussels want to start ordering general ammunition because they believe larger orders will be more attractive to manufacturers and can lower prices. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and others gave the example of Brussels buying large quantities of Covid-19 vaccines.
However, some countries do not want to give that kind of power over defense matters to Brussels or believe that an alliance of member states with a long history of military contracts will be more effective than a coalition of member states. The committee has not negotiated such contracts before.
There are also differing views on what to buy: Some countries only want to buy European-made ammunition, while others argue that the need for speed should dictate what is readily available from any source. Anywhere a stockpile can be found.
The third part of the plan is longer-term and focuses on boosting Europe’s defense industry, but that will require billions of dollars more and remains vague.
So for now, the immediate goal is to supply Ukraine with an additional million 155mm ammunition this year and sign a new procurement contract by the end of May, Mr. Borrell said.
Since the start of the war 13 months ago, Brussels has spent 450 million euros to reimburse members for supplying 350,000 shells to Ukraine.
