EU delivers promised one million ammunition rounds to Ukraine – Borrell
The European Union has met its pledge to provide Ukraine with one million rounds of ammunition, which were to be delivered by spring.
This was announced by EU High Representative Josep Borrell in his blog on the European External Action Service website, according to Ukrinform.
Borrell highlighted that the EU has provided Ukraine with an unprecedented amount of military assistance, including weapons worth EUR 45 billion.
"We have also just met our pledge to provide Ukraine with 1 million rounds of ammunition, and by the end of winter, we will have trained 75,000 Ukrainian soldiers," he emphasized.
Borrell assured that the EU and its member states remain Ukraine’s strongest supporters and that the bloc's assistance to Kyiv is increasing.
However, the EU High Representative acknowledged that the current level of support is still insufficient to change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine's favor.
"We need to step up our assistance and abandon our policy of imposing red lines on Ukraine’s defenders," Borrell stated.
As reported by Ukrinform, in March 2023, on Estonia’s initiative, EU countries made a political commitment to supply Ukraine with one million artillery shells over the course of a year. This project revealed certain logistical and production challenges in the EU’s defense industry, prompting the European Commission and member states to take steps to rapidly enhance their military-industrial capabilities.
On November 11, Borrell announced that EU member states would deliver 1.5 million artillery shells to Ukraine by the end of the year. He also acknowledged that, despite the bloc’s commitment to provide Ukraine with one million rounds of ammunition by spring, the promise had not been fully met.
"The issue was not about delivering existing stock but about production. When we promised to reach a level of one million rounds per year by spring, we did not know the actual production capacity, which was not as high as we thought. Now, we have achieved this production capacity," Borrell noted.