Dhe EU countries have handed over a significant number of missiles to Ukraine, but are still a long way from their goal of supplying the country with a million heavy artillery shells. This emerges from a confidential list by the European External Action Service (EAD), which is available to the FAZ.
Accordingly, as of Friday, the states have submitted invoices for 1,080 rockets, for example for multiple rocket launchers and air defense systems, to the EAD, as well as for 41,000 grenades. The total sum amounts to 601 million euros. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba complained last week that the “EU’s inability to implement its own decisions on ammunition procurement is frustrating”.
One billion euros is earmarked for deliveries to Kiev from stocks or ongoing contracts made between February 9 and May 31. Another billion is to be spent on new orders made by the end of September; this money should only be invested in 155 caliber ammunition. A total of one million shots are to be sent to Ukraine by both routes within a year. Reimbursable are 50 to 60 percent of the costs incurred by the states – so far 300 to 360 million euros.
Expensive precision ammunition
On the other hand, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell claimed in a tweet on Friday that “more than 66 percent of the first billion euros has been delivered”. In doing so, he tried to cushion Kuleba’s criticism. When the FAZ pointed out to the EAD that this was factually incorrect, a senior official initially claimed that the amount of more than 600 million euros referred to the reimbursement amount, not the invoice amount. On Friday evening, the EAD deleted Borrell’s tweet.
Of the 601 million euros, according to the EAD’s list, 180 million relate to 1080 rockets, the rest to medium and large caliber ammunition. While almost all of the rockets have been delivered to Ukraine, 28,000 of the pledged 41,000 shells had not yet officially arrived in the country. The reported invoice amount results in an average value of more than 10,000 euros per shot. From this it can be concluded that the states have promised expensive precision ammunition; a new standard 155 caliber grenade only costs around 4,000 euros.
The less ammunition that states (can) deliver from their stocks, the more they have to have manufactured through new contracts. A compromise is emerging here between Germany and most other countries as well as France, according to which reimbursable ammunition must be manufactured in Europe, but components may also come from third countries. This should be finalized in the coming week. Then the armaments directors of the EU countries will also meet to coordinate their needs.
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