The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umyerov handed over a letter to the heads of the military departments of the European Union (EU) countries, in which he spoke about the critical shortage of ammunition for artillery.
Bloomberg writes about it.
The letter states that the troops can fire no more than two thousand shells per day on the front line 1.5 thousand kilometers long. The shortage situation is getting worse every day. Meanwhile, the occupying forces are firing three times more shells, the minister emphasizes.
According to his estimates, Ukraine needs 200 000 155 mm shells per month. Umerov once again called on European allies to fulfill their promise to deliver a million rounds of ammunition by March.
- In March 2023, EU member states promised to increase the supply of artillery shells to Ukraine and to hand over one million shells by March 2024. Subsequently, the media began to write that the EU industry was not keeping up.
- At the end of November 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba informed that the European Union had transferred almost 300 000 artillery ammunition to Ukraine out of the promised million. On January 31 of this year, Bloomberg wrote that approximately 600 000 will be transferred by March. EU countries cannot deliver the promised million by March due to constant production delays and concerns about depleting their own stocks.
- Since the beginning of the year, the rhetoric in the EU has changed. They announced plans to produce 1.3 million shells by the end of 2024. Some of them will go to Ukraine. Production capacity should reach one million shells per year by March or April.