Yesterday and today in Brussels at the informal meeting of European Union defence ministers, the discussion focused on the 1 million rounds of ammunition for Ukraine initiative. With the Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov, the ministers also discussed priorities for training the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“Today we have good news – we will keep our promise to deliver one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine. Although they might not all reach Ukraine by March, we can be secure in the knowledge that it will come and that countries have made their contributions towards reaching that goal. As commitments stand, by March over half a million rounds will have reached Ukraine, and another 600 000 will reach them by the end of the year, so in total over 1,1 million,” said Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur.
“In addition, it is a pleasure to see that the European defence industry has been able to ramp up production in a big way – although there is still room for development, in addition to ammunition in other areas as well. However, based on current ammunition prices and delivery times, we can see that we are able to produce, provided the money in the form of contracts is put on the table. By the end of the year, the artillery ammunition production capacity of European states is expected to rise to 1,5 million rounds per year,” added Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur.
According to Pevkur, Estonia is also contributing further rounds of ammunition for Ukraine in four figures. States have decided to not publish exact figures of ammunition that is being sent.
In addition, minister Pevkur met bilaterally with the Minister of Defence of Luxembourg Yuriko Backes, Minister of Defence of Italy Guido Crosetto, and Minister of Defence of Romania Angel Tilvar.
The European Union Member States agreed last spring to send 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine to counter the Russian military aggression by March 2024.
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