EU will not supply promised 1 million ammunition rounds to Ukraine by March – Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that the European Union will not be able to carry out its plan to supply one million rounds of artillery to Ukraine by March 2024 due to the state of defence production and bureaucratic obstacles.
Source: European Pravda, citing Kuleba during the national joint 24/7 newscast
Details: The minister was asked to comment on a Bloomberg report that the EU has informed member states that the pledge to provide Ukraine with 1 million artillery rounds by March 2024 is "unlikely to be fulfilled".
"Unfortunately, Bloomberg is telling the truth. There are questions, and we are doing a lot of loud ringing of alarm bells," Kuleba replied.
He added that the reason for this problem is not a lack of political will in the EU, but the "lamentable state of the defence industry", as well as "a lot of unsynchronised things, a lot of bureaucracy".
"The European Union is working to remedy these problems, and that is why, while in Berlin, I called on the European Union to develop a coherent policy in the field of defence industries," the Foreign Minister stressed.
He said the EU has already begun to take certain steps to rectify the situation.
"But we need faster actions, and more of them. And we do really appreciate the support of the European Union, but we will push them [on this]. Because, as ever, we can see a Ukrainian infantryman standing right in front of us, and he needs ammunition," Kuleba concluded.
The provision of ammunition to Ukraine is becoming increasingly urgent as Russia has been able to increase its own production and obtain supplies from North Korea.
At the end of October, Bloomberg reported that the EU was falling behind in its plans to provide Ukraine with one million rounds of artillery. Meanwhile, NATO is pushing its member states to overcome protectionist tendencies and agree on a single standard for artillery ammunition so that production can be increased.
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