Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says he is frustrated at the slow pace of EU ammunition deliveries as national capitals bicker over which factories should get allocated money.
Kuleba said the EU seems unable to fulfil its own promises to promptly get shells to Ukraine, where certain types of ammunition are already rationed.
He complained on Twitter about the EU’s “inability … to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine”, adding that it was “frustrating”.
Despite the positive buzz around the multi-billion-euro deal dubbed “historical” by Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, the EU is struggling to make good on its pledges.
“This is a test of whether the EU has strategic autonomy in making new crucial security decisions,” Kuleba noted. “For Ukraine, the cost of inaction is measured in human lives.” The EU is not expected to reach an agreement when the foreign ministers meet in Luxemburg on April 24.
Member States are bickering over who should get the joint contracts. France wants to keep the money within the EU; other countries say a portion of funds could go towards procurement in the US and the UK. French President Emmanuel Macron recently warned “Europe must resist pressure to become America’s followers”. This referred to Taiwan, but many read it as a broader remark.
At the end of March, the European Union signed a landmark deal in which it promised to send Ukraine a million rounds of ammunition within the next 12 months. The EU is to donate ammunition from its own stockpiles and jointly purchase new shells for Ukraine. The agreement sets a goal to “jointly procure” these munitions “in the fastest way possible”.
