War in Ukraine: the EU finalizes a plan of 2 billion euros to finance purchases of ammunition


THE ESSENTIAL

The European Union is finalizing this week a plan of 2 billion euros to finance joint purchases of artillery ammunition which Ukraine desperately needs to counter the offensive of Russian troops. The project should make it possible to supply the Ukrainian forces with at least one million 155 mm shells and to replenish the strategic stocks of EU countries, some of which are close to exhaustion.

“We don’t have white smoke yet,” a European official said on Sunday. “Two member states, the Netherlands and Italy, still have reservations, but there is no blockage. They should be able to be lifted for the meeting of Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministers on Monday in Brussels” , explained a diplomat. The agreement will then be submitted to EU leaders for their summit on Thursday and Friday.

The EU is responding to an urgent appeal made on March 9 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as his troops are limiting their firepower due to lack of ammunition. “We have entered the dangerous phase of the war. The Russians have more than 300,000 fighters massed for an offensive and we must help the Ukrainian forces to resist”, explained a senior European official.

The main points to remember:

– The European Union is finalizing this week a 2 billion euro plan to finance joint purchases of artillery ammunition for Ukraine.

– The Netherlands and Italy have reservations about this funding.

– For his part, Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Rostov-on-Don (southern Russia), not far from the Ukrainian border, with Russian army officials.

Putin, Xi to talk about China’s plan to settle Ukraine conflict

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will discuss Beijing’s proposed plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine at their summit in Russia this week, the Kremlin said Monday, accusing the United States of stoking violence.

“The topics covered in this (Chinese) plan for Ukraine will be part of the negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “The United States sticks to its positions of continuing to provoke the conflict, to obstruct a reduction in the intensity of hostilities and to continue to flood Ukraine with weapons,” he added.

Meeting of Jinping and Putin at the top

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin on Monday praised the strength of their bilateral partnership, hours before the Chinese president’s arrival in Moscow for a summit with his Russian counterpart, isolated internationally due to the invasion of Ukraine.

The three-day state visit to Russia, a country with which China has important diplomatic and economic ties, is the Chinese leader’s first to his neighbor in nearly four years.

In an article published in the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Xi Jinping presented his visit as a “journey of friendship, cooperation and peace”, in the face of Westerners who view the Sino-Russian relationship with suspicion. “I look forward to working with President Putin to jointly adopt a new vision” of bilateral ties, writes Xi Jinping in particular.

On the strength of having facilitated the recent diplomatic reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, China is positioning itself as a mediator on the Russia-Ukraine war and calls in particular for peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev.

Rearming the EU

President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Rostov-on-Don (southern Russia), not far from the Ukrainian border, with Russian military officials, including Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov .

“Time is running out: we have to deliver more artillery ammunition and we have to do it faster,” insists Josep Borrell. It asks the Member States to devote to purchases of ammunition for Ukraine the 2 billion euros allocated in December to replenish the European Peace Facility, the intergovernmental fund used since the beginning of the war for the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

One billion euros will be used to reimburse member states for ammunition taken from their stocks, at a price of 1,000 to 1,300 euros per shell, it was specified. A shell is currently worth 4,000 euros and prices are rising.

“The Ukrainians want ammunition for their artillery and missiles for their anti-aircraft defense and the EU will provide them,” explained the representative of a member state. The deal calls for the supplies by May 31, he said. The state of the stocks is a military secret, but “we believe that there are still ammunition and we seek to encourage their delivery”, confided the senior European official.

A second billion will be used for joint purchases of 155 mm ammunition intended for Ukraine. The contracts are scheduled for September with the objective of reducing the lead times for supply and delivery to 6-8 months.

The third part of Josep Borrell’s plan aims to increase the production capacities of the EU’s dozen arms companies to “replenish EU countries’ stocks and continue to supply Ukrainian forces”.

The war “will last”

“This war is destined to last and the needs of the Ukrainian forces are very great,” explained a diplomat. “The EU must rearm,” he insisted.

“The goal of supplying Ukraine with at least one million 155mm shells is widely shared,” assured a diplomat. “Destocking and supplies are carried out continuously”, explained the representative of a Member State. “We don’t know everything that the States are doing and not all of them are asking for refunds”, recognize the services of Josep Borrell.

European military aid to Ukraine is estimated at 12 billion euros, including 3.6 billion via the European Peace Facility, 63% of which is financed by contributions from Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

The Europeans will also have trained 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers “at the end of April”, said a program manager. An agreement in principle has been reached to allocate new financing of 3.5 billion euros to top up the Facility and “the discussion could be launched this week”, confided a European official. “We’re going,” assured a European diplomat.



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