In addition to the already promised and delivered ammunition, the European Union will take three steps to further increase ammunition deliveries to Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
“Ukraine is heroically resisting the brutal Russian invaders. We stand by our pledge to support Ukraine and its people for as long as necessary,” von der Leyen wrote in a Twitter post.
Von der Leyen said that one of the key steps to keep Ukraine forces supplied with ammunition is through existing stocks from member states. However, due to shortages in these stocks, “we will boost and accelerate the industrial production of ammunition in Europe,” she wrote.
As Remix News reported earlier, €1 billion from the European Peace Facility has already been reserved for countries that send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine from their own military equipment. The amount is intended as compensation to states to replace the equipment they donated. Confusion has already erupted over costs due to Estonia submitting its own invoices to Brussels, with critics arguing those invoices were inflated.
However, European production capacity for the most effective 155 mm artillery shells is very tight to begin with, and since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has fired the equivalent of the annual production of the U.S. every month.
