EU wants to transfer 1 million shells to Ukraine by April - Politico

The European Union may meet its goal of producing 1 million artillery shells by this spring to send to Ukraine. The bloc needs a defense fund of EUR 100 billion to increase the production of weapons and ammunition.

This was stated by the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, Politico writes.

Breton plans to unveil the European Defense Investment Program (EDIP) on February 27, aimed at boosting joint arms purchases and putting the EU on a military footing by boosting domestic production of arms and ammunition. EU leaders will discuss defense challenges at a summit in early February. Breton also emphasized that the EU can still achieve its goal of producing 1 million artillery shells for Ukraine by spring.

"I want to tell you here today that we will honor our commitments. I hate to see some of the defense ministers say that we won't be able to deliver on that, that's not the kind of information you provide when on your continent there is a war going on. We are only the European Commission, but it is absolutely possible to reach the million target by March or April," Breton said.

According to the European Commissioner, to implement the ammunition supply plan, it is necessary to reduce exports to countries outside the EU and to put pressure on member states' governments to increase production.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in October, the Bloomberg agency reported that the European Union fulfilled approximately 30% of the total volume of ammunition supplies to Ukraine.

On October 24, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, said that Ukraine should establish its own production of ammunition, as there is a shortage of them all over the world.

On November 14, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba stated that the European Union will not be able to fulfill its plan to supply Ukraine with one million artillery shells by March 2024.