The European Union on Monday approved the allocation of 2 billion euros (2.9 billion Canadian dollars) to buy and deliver artillery ammunition to Ukraine, several European diplomatic sources told AFP.
EU foreign ministers approved a three-phase action plan to supply Ukrainian forces with at least one million 155mm shells and to replenish EU countries’ strategic stocks, some of which are close to exhaustion, said the representatives of five delegations.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba, who took part in the meeting of his EU counterparts by videoconference, welcomed the agreement.
“More artillery ammunition for Ukraine as soon as possible. This was the main focus of today’s EU Foreign Affairs Council,” he stressed in a post on Twitter. This agreement will “strengthen Ukraine’s capabilities on the battlefield”, he commented.
The agreement, which will be submitted to EU leaders at their summit on Thursday and Friday, responds to an urgent appeal made on March 9 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
One billion euros will be used to reimburse member states for ammunition taken from their stocks, at a price of 1,000 to 1,300 euros per shell, it was specified. A shell is currently worth 4,000 euros and prices are rising. The agreement calls for the supplies by May 31.
A second billion will be used for joint purchases of 155 mm ammunition intended for Ukraine. The contracts are scheduled for September with the objective of reducing the lead times for supply and delivery to 6-8 months.
The third part of the plan aims to increase the production capacities of the EU’s dozen arms companies to “replenish the stocks of EU countries and continue to supply the Ukrainian forces”.
The 2 billion euros will be drawn from the European Peace Facility, an intergovernmental fund created by states outside the European budget and used since the start of the war for arms supplies to Ukraine.
An agreement in principle has been reached to allocate new financing of 3.5 billion euros to top up the Facility, the diplomats specified.