Borrell outlines major points of the plan to provide ammunition for Ukraine

The total funding of the project could reach EUR 5 billion.

Defence ministers of EU countries can choose one of three options to provide Ukraine with ammunitions and military hardware, and also determine medium and long-term measures for continued military support of Ukraine, High Representative Josep Borrell stated before the informal meeting of Defence Ministers of EU member countries in Stockholm. The diplomat stressed that although it was an information meeting, it was going to have a serious impact on the strategy, as proposals for the next joint meeting with Foreign Ministers will be developed.

“Ukraine needs more ammunitions. The issue is how to provide the ammunitions that Ukraine needs to continue to defend itself. I presented a proposal. The Ministers will discuss it. The proposal has been built together with the European External Action Service (EEAS), with the European Defence Agency (EDA) – which I have the honour to chair – and the European Commission. And it has three pillars.First, to provide ammunition quickly from the existing stocks. We are talking about weeks, so we need to use what we already have. What the European armies already have in their stockpiles and in the contracts that they have passed to the industry,” state Borrell.

Second, he said, was to ask for more ‘going together’: a common procurement of all armies that wanted to do that all together in order to provide parts of this common procurement to Ukraine, in the medium term.

The third, longer-term step, is to increase the defence capacity of our industry. “We cannot talk seriously about our capacity to have an autonomous strategic responsibility if we do not have enough defence capacity in our industrial side. And on that, we are working together with the [European] Commission and we will see how we can increase this capacity,” said Borrell.

To the questions of journalists about the money required for such immediate and medium-term assistance, Borrell said that for the first pillar, for transferring existing ammunitions, the funding will be €1 billion, and the program of medium-term assistance and joint procurement could amount up to €4 billion.

On Wednesday, March 8, Stockholm is hosting an informal meeting of Defence Ministers of the EU under the aegis of Sweden, which is currently presiding in the EU. Accelerating military support from EU countries to Ukraine to continue to defend itself against Russian aggression is the first and the key issue of the meeting, which is attended by Defence Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov.

ZN.UA