“If we want to help the Ukrainians, we must accelerate” the production of ammunition, explains Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs

“If we want to help the Ukrainians, we have to speed up”, explained on Friday March 24 on franceinfo Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, while the Heads of State and Government of the Twenty-Seven have been meeting in Brussels since Thursday March 23 to a summit partly devoted to the war in Ukraine. They agreed to send kyiv a million artillery shells spread over a year. Josep Borrell is proposing an additional budget of around 2 billion euros. “It’s a war that has changed in nature, which consumes a lot more ammunition”he justified.

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franceinfo: Is this additional aid a way of showing your support for Ukraine even more?
Joseph Borrell : Artillery and guns have been supplied to Ukraine. But if we provide guns, we will still have to provide ammunition. Otherwise what’s the use? Since the beginning of the war, artillery ammunition has been supplied. There’s nothing new. Only, it is the quantity and the rhythm that count. The war now has become a war of position, an artillery duel. The Russian artillery carries out around 20,000 cannon shots per day on the front line. It is a war that has changed in nature, which consumes a lot more ammunition. If we want to help the Ukrainians, we have to speed up. It’s that simple. The Ukrainians are bombarded every day with drones and with heavy artillery, they need to defend themselves.

Do European countries have enough ammunition?
Joseph Borrell: We need to speed up production. We will work on three pillars. First, to look for what we have in the military stocks of the European armies and secondly, to place orders with industry in a coordinated and common way, so as to aggregate all the requests both for the European armies and for the Ukrainian army. And the third pillar is to increase European industrial capacity. Today, in Europe, we produce four times less ammunition compared to 20 years ago. It is normal, for 20 years, Europe had settled in an atmosphere of peace. But now, unfortunately, there is a war.

Poland supplies fighter jets to Ukraine. Other European countries will do it?
Joseph Borrell: Slovakia has announced that it will also supply Soviet-era aircraft. Western countries that were not part of the Warsaw Pact do not have these fighter jets. But the countries of the East have kept planes in their armies which come from the Soviet era. First Poland, then Slovakia, I imagine there will be others who will supply these fighter planes to Ukraine. They do it very willingly. I find that logical.