German minister confirms EU will fall short of pledged 1 million artillery rounds by March deadline
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The European Union will not be able to provide Ukraine with one million artillery rounds by March 2024 as it had promised it would, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius admitted while talking to reporters on Nov. 14, Bloomberg reports.
"The one million will not be reached, one must assume that," Pistorius said.
The minister also expressed doubts that the goal set by the EU to help Ukraine was "ever realistic."
Pistorius noted that some have called for caution with this goal, noting that the money is there, but level of production also had to be sufficiently high.
"The warning voices unfortunately were right," Pistorius said, urging defense contractors to increase production.
At the same time, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who is responsible for implementing the ammunition plan, said that the production target of one million shells a year "will be met."
"Now it is up to the member states to make the orders – that is not up to the commission," Breton said.
EU members "must do it, and they must also verify that this production on their territory is directed in priority to Ukraine," he said.
Earlier, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said that the EU would not be able to provide Ukraine with the promised one million rounds of ammunition in time.
Bloomberg cited sources as saying that the European Union has informed member states that the bloc would fail to meet its commitment to provide Ukraine with shells.
According to plans developed in early 2023, the EU pledged to provide Ukraine with artillery ammunition within 12 months, first from existing stocks, and then through joint procurement contracts and increased industrial capacity.
According to Bloomberg, the initiative is currently 30% complete, but given the volume of contracts signed to date, there is a risk that it will not be completed by the deadline.
On March 20, EU foreign ministers agreed on a plan to jointly purchase and supply 1 million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine worth 2 billion euros ($2.14 billion). The plan envisaged the allocation of 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) to compensate member states for supplies, another 1 billion euros for joint purchases of ammunition, and an increase in EU production output.
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