14 November 2023, Tuesday, 18:34 253

Foreign Ministry confirms that EU will not transfer promised 1 million ammunition to Ukraine by March

Editor: Daria Zubkova

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The European Union will not be able to fulfill its plan to deliver one million artillery shells to Ukraine by March 2024 due to the state of defense production and bureaucratic obstacles.

According to European Pravda, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba announced this on the air of a telethon.

In particular, he was asked to comment on Bloomberg's publication, according to which the EU informed member states that the commitment to provide Ukraine with 1 million artillery munitions by March 2024 "is unlikely to be fulfilled."

"Unfortunately, the Bloomberg agency is telling the truth. There are questions, and we are, let's say, ringing the bells a lot," Kuleba replied.

He added that the cause of this problem is not the lack of political will in the EU, but the "deplorable state of the defense industry", as well as "a lot of unsynchronized things, a lot of bureaucracy."

"The European Union is working to eliminate these problems, and that is why, while in Berlin, I called on the European Union to develop a comprehensive policy in the field of defense industries," the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized.

According to him, the EU has already started taking certain steps to correct the situation.

"But we need faster, we need more. And we really appreciate the support of the European Union here, but we will match them. Because, once again, we have a Ukrainian infantryman standing before our eyes, and he needs shells," Kuleba concluded.

The provision of ammunition to Ukraine is becoming more and more urgent due to the fact that russia has been able to increase its own production, as well as receive appropriate supplies from North Korea.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in October, the Bloomberg agency reported that the European Union fulfilled approximately 30% of the total volume of ammunition supplies to Ukraine.

On October 24, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, said that Ukraine should establish its own production of ammunition, as their shortage is felt all over the world.

At the same time, North Korea handed over a million shells to the aggressor state of russia.