Borrell: The European Union sent 220,000 artillery shells to Ukraine
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that the bloc has sent 220,000 artillery shells to Ukraine under a major program launched two months ago to ramp up arms supplies to Kiev to help it face the Russian invasion.
Borrell added that the European Union countries also provided 1,300 missiles under the program and that they are heading towards achieving the goal of supplying Ukraine with one million pieces of ammunition within a year, even despite the reluctance of some countries of the bloc to adopt the feasibility of that goal.
“The coming days, weeks and months will be strategically decisive in the Ukrainian war,” Borrell told reporters when announcing the figures at the end of a meeting of European Union defense ministers in Brussels.
European governments agreed to the munitions program in March after Kiev said it desperately needed artillery shells as the Russian invasion turned into a war of attrition and thousands of shells were fired daily.
This is the first time that the European Union has co-financed a large-scale joint munitions procurement programme, and reflects the bloc’s increasing involvement in military affairs since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
