Ukraine purchased 350,000 shells from the European defense industry

Ukraine purchased more than 350,000 artillery shells from the European defense industry on its own.

Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission, announced this, noting that in addition to ammunition provided and purchased by EU states, Ukraine purchased shells within its own contracts.

European countries are supporting Ukraine by donating ammunition from their stockpiles and increasing production at defense companies.

“Ukraine today needs 200,000 155 mm ammunition per month. It makes 2.5 million per year,” said Josep Borrell.

Borrell noted that you can have a lot of money, but it won’t become shells if the industry is not capable of producing the right amount of ammunition.

“You need to convert financial capacity into industrial capacity to provide supplies,” Borrell said.

The European Union’s goal is to supply a total of 1,100,000 shells as donations by the end of the year.

“It is still not enough, but it is much more than we could have expected at the beginning,” Borrell said.

However, there have also been some initiatives to find other sources of supply that could speed up the replenishment of Ukraine’s reserves.

“There is another source of supply which has to be taken into consideration, which is direct contracts between Ukraine and the European industry,” the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission noted.

Through this channel of direct purchases from the European industry, more than 350,000 ammunition have been supplied to Ukraine.

In February, it was reported that Rheinmetall plans to open a new plant to produce artillery ammunition in Ukraine.