Billions from EU funds: EU pledges one million artillery shells to Ukraine

billions from EU funds
EU pledges 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine

In the fight against the Russian invaders, Ukraine currently needs one thing above all: ammunition. The EU states are now agreeing on a joint procurement offensive. In this way, around a million projectiles should come together within a year.

The EU states want to supply Ukraine with a million new artillery shells for the fight against Russia in the next twelve months. According to the plans, around two billion euros in EU funds will be mobilized in order to distribute the costs fairly, as several diplomats confirmed on the fringes of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

The money is to come from the so-called peace facility. This is a financing instrument through which the EU is already supplying arms and equipment and funding the training of the Ukrainian armed forces.

The new plans are based on concerns that Ukraine could be short of important ammunition in the near future. This particularly concerns artillery shells with a caliber of 155 mm. The EU Commission and Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell had therefore recently presented a plan on how possible deliveries could be accelerated.

Of the two billion euros, one billion is to be used for refunds to those member states that quickly deliver from their own stocks to the country attacked by Russia. The second billion is intended to promote joint procurement projects. The idea is that bulk orders will lower prices and speed up orders.

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