The European Union plans to deliver almost 170,000 artillery shells to Ukraine by the end of March.
This was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, after a conversation with EU High Representative Josep Borrell.
"The absolute priority now is artillery shells. By the end of March, the EU plans to deliver almost 170,000 rounds of ammunition to Ukraine and is working on further increasing the volume of supplies," wrote the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
He also reminded that at one time the European Union made "historic decisions" on the transfer of weapons to Ukraine, the introduction of sanctions against Russia, the beginning of negotiations on Ukraineʼs accession to the EU and support for the Ukrainian peace formula.
- In March 2023, EU member states promised to increase the supply of artillery shells to Ukraine, as the troops at the front do not have enough of them. The countries agreed to a plan that included the supply of ammunition from their stockpiles and joint orders for the production of projectiles. The goal is to transfer one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine within a year, i.e. by March 2024.
- At the end of November 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, announced that the European Union had transferred almost 300,000 artillery ammunition to Ukraine out of the promised million.
- European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said that the European Union will be able to produce 1.3 million projectiles by the end of 2024, some of which will be transferred to Ukraine. However, Bloomberg, citing diplomatic sources, writes that they will not have time to hand over a million munitions by March — all because of constant delays in production and concerns about the exhaustion of stocks of member countries of the bloc.