“Ukraine’s Foreign Minister to express dissatisfaction over EU’s failure to buy ammunition”

On Monday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba may express to his EU counterparts Kyiv’s dissatisfaction over disagreements that are hampering the EU’s plan to buy ammunition for Ukraine.

About this, as he writes “European Truth”the agency said Reuters.

Kuleba will speak via video link at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers, which will be held in Luxembourg. Diplomats from the EU expect that Kuleba will express dissatisfaction with the failure to implement an agreement between the countries of the European Union on the joint purchase of artillery shells.

Kuleba said last week that the EU’s failure to implement its own decision to jointly purchase ammunition for Ukraine was disappointing.

The joint procurement plan is part of an EU multi-vector agreement to supply Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells or rockets within 12 months and to increase European ammunition production.

The first element of the agreement is the most urgent. It provides for the allocation of 1 billion euros to reimburse the costs of EU governments for sending Ukraine ammunition from existing stocks. EU officials say that this clause of the agreement is up and running, so the ammunition is already arriving in Kyiv.

But the second element of the agreement, which provides for €1bn in funding for EU joint purchases, has yet to be completed.

EU countries have agreed to buy ammunition from companies in the EU and Norway, which has close economic ties to the European Union. But according to diplomats, France insists that only companies from Europe be involved in the plan.

Such a position disappointed other EU membersin particular Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. They expressed skepticism that European industry could quickly produce enough rounds to meet Ukraine’s urgent needs.

EU officials and diplomats said they expect an agreement that satisfies all parties to be reached in the coming days. Some officials had previously assumed that an agreement would be reached last week, but these hopes turned out to be in vain.