Ukraine Laments 'Dire State' of Europe's Arsenal

Ukraine is pessimistic about the prospects that the European Union can meet its commitment of providing it with one million artillery shells within five months.

Since the start of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has been firing thousands of rounds a day, burning through supplies much faster than the allies can produce them.

Kuleba was asked to comment on a Bloomberg report that the European Union's foreign policy arm, the European External Action Service, had told EU diplomats last week that the bloc would likely miss a pledge to provide one million shells by March 2024.

This was agreed on in March this year, with the EU promising to provide artillery rounds to Ukraine over a 12-month period by dipping into existing stocks through joint procurement contracts and increasing manufacturing capacity.

"Unfortunately, Bloomberg is telling the truth," Kuleba said on Ukrainian television, according to Ukrainska Pravda. He said while there was political will in the EU, supplies were being affected by "the dire state of the defense industry" and bureaucracy.

Ammunition was urgently required because Russia had increased its own production and would also receive supplies from North Korea, he added.

The EU was working to correct the situation, "but we need to do it faster; we need more," Kuleba said, "because, again, there is a Ukrainian infantryman standing before our eyes, and he needs shells."

On Tuesday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius questioned whether the goal the EU had set itself "was ever realistic" and that even if the money was available, the production also had to be sufficient, and defense contractors had to increase output, Bloomberg reported.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said about 40 percent of ammunition production is being exported to third countries and that "maybe what we have to do is to try to shift this production to the priority one, which is Ukrainians."

One major obstacle is that while there is a NATO standard for artillery ammunition, some countries are not sticking to this, which has led to a fragmentation of the market and hampered supplies.

In an interview with Reuters last month, Admiral Rob Bauer, head of NATO's military committee, called on members to overcome protectionist tendencies and agree on a standard for artillery ammunition to boost the production of 155mm shells for Ukraine.

Kyiv's downbeat take on the prospects of getting the ammunition it needs follows Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Valeri Zaluzhnyi's interview with The Economist that the war had reached a "stalemate" although this sentiment was swiftly rejected by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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