By BRUSSELS. Nov 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Union states that it remains committed to supplying Ukraine with the necessary ammunition: this issue will be the subject of discussion at a meeting of EU defense ministers, which will be held on November 13 in Brussels, a senior European official told reporters on Friday on condition of anonymity.
He said that as for the ammunition initiative, the decision on which was made in March last year, the first track was implemented already at the end of May. And if we add the figures for the first track plus deliveries since its end, we will get 300,000 ammunition rounds, which have been supplied to Ukraine since February. This means 30% of the planned 1 million. And, of course, they will also carry out deliveries on the second track. We are talking about joint projects, joint procurement through the European Defence Agency or through what we call the lead country approach. He can’t tell the numbers today because they don’t have all of them, but he says that the trend that they got is very significant in terms of the share of ammunition that was purchased jointly under the second track and that will be delivered to Ukraine by end of the year or next year.
According to the official, in addition to the second track, ammunition is also purchased on a national basis, and these will have to be added to the figures that he just mentioned. The official says that they remain determined to transfer to Ukraine all the ammunition it needs as soon as possible. The main issue now, as we know, is the problem of industrial potential. That is why they have a third track. That is why the Commission is preparing a new European strategy for the defense industry, the journalist’s interlocutor added.
At the same time, he clarified that now in the EU, they need to look at how they can support their industry as effectively as possible so that it can increase its production capacity. So the idea is that we continue to support Ukraine and provide it with the ammunition it needs, the senior European official concluded.
