After vaccinations, Europe is ready to jointly buy weapons to support Ukraine. Brussels’ plan envisages financing contracts worth one billion euros for the supply of ammunition, primarily mortars, to Kiev. This was reported by the Spanish newspaper El Pais, which cited a draft proposal that the European Commission should submit in the next few days.
According to El Pais, the mechanism is similar to the mechanism established for anti-Covid drugs: the funds allocated by Brussels will be used to “repay” member states’ “donations” of weapons to Ukraine. In the document, the Commission calls on the governments of the bloc to send ammunition “immediately” to Ukraine, taking them from their “arsenals” or stockpiles that are the subject of “pending orders”. In particular, there is talk of long-range artillery (howitzers, to be precise) that is becoming more and more strategic for the war in the Donbass against the Moscow troops, whose epicenter is now in Bakhmut.
Here the Ukrainian troops are trying to keep the Russian army and Wagner’s mercenaries as busy as possible: the city has been under fire for months and the Kremlin wants its total conquest. Kiev’s resistance aims not only at losing control of Bakhmut but above all, if not at weakening Moscow’s advance in the Donbass. The problem, as both Ukrainian leaders and Wagner’s mercenaries have repeatedly pointed out, is that the siege is depleting ammunition reserves on both sides. The latest call from Kiev goes back to last week, when Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov asked his EU counterparts to speed up sending military aid.
On paper, there is broad consensus among European ministers that Ukraine’s demands should be met, but some governments are delaying delivery times for fears that a large, rapid supply could deplete their ammunition stockpiles and pose a risk to their defences as a result. In the background, there will also be a serious problem in the industrial production of howitzers and the like, which is not compatible in terms of timing and quantity with the war effort required by the Ukrainian front. The Commission wants to tackle these critical issues with a three-point proposal. El Pais writes that the first is a further expansion of European Peace Instrument resources that have already been used to “pay member states for 3.6 billion euros in ammunition and weapons sent to Ukraine” since the war began.
In addition, “to make the transfer more attractive and to overcome resistance from countries concerned about running out of arsenals,” Brussels proposes a new scheme, in which member states “up to 90% of the ammunition they send to Kiev will be paid.” Finally, given the slowness of EU domestic arms production, the plan envisages inviting “like-minded” third countries to participate in the joint procurement programme. The reference should be made specifically to Norway. The commission’s proposal should be presented in the next few hours for discussion at the desk of twenty-seven defense ministers scheduled for 7 and 8 March in Stockholm.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
