By Andrew Gray and Sabine Siebold
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov urged his European Union counterparts on Wednesday to support a plan to buy 1 million artillery shells to help Kyiv fight Russia’s invasion and replenish their own stocks.
Speaking to reporters just before meeting the ministers in Stockholm, Reznikov said Ukraine urgently needed the shells to defend against Russian forces and launch a counter-offensive.
Reznikov said he supported a proposal by Estonia for EU countries to club together to buy 1 million 155-millimetre shells for Ukraine this year at a cost of 4 billion euros ($4.22 billion).
He said Ukraine wanted 90,000 to 100,000 artillery rounds per month. Ukraine is burning through shells faster than its allies can make them, officials have warned, prompting a renewed search for ammunition and ways to ramp up production.
“We need to move forward as soon as possible,” Reznikov said, standing alongside Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur.
A massive joint munitions-buying effort would be a landmark step for the EU as defence procurement has largely been in the hands of the bloc’s individual member governments.
While there appears to be broad support among the EU’s governments and institutions for a joint procurement project, they have yet to agree on how big it should be, how it should work, how much it should cost or how to pay for it.
Pevkur said EU countries should provide extra cash for the initiative rather than use funds already allocated for military aid to Ukraine.
“We need fresh money and we need it quickly,” he said.
By contrast, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has proposed a plan that would use money already allocated to an EU-run fund, the European Peace Facility.
Asked about Estonia’s call for fresh money, Borrell replied: “Well, money does not come from the sky. It is not because one member state is claiming that we need to have more money that the money will appear by (a) miracle.”
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Wednesday’s discussions about joint procurement were “right and necessary” but should not distract from the fact that it would take time for industry to ramp up capacity to meet higher demand.
“We have to face the truth: Just because we all place more orders does not mean there is more ammunition. It has to be produced before it can be delivered,” he said.
To address Kyiv’s short-term needs, Borrell has proposed offering a higher reimbursement rate from the Peace Facility for countries to send ammunition from their own stocks to Ukraine, at an estimated cost of 1 billion euros.
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Nick Macfie)
