Estonia proposes EU to invest €4 billion in purchase of 1 million ammunition for Ukraine – media
Estonia has sent a proposal to the European Union member states to invest about €4 billion to jointly purchase 1 million rounds of ammunition needed by Ukraine to repel the Russian invasion.
This was reported by Bloomberg.
Tallinn claims that Russia is currently producing as much ammunition in Ukraine in a day as Europe can produce in a month. Therefore, the EU needs to urgently increase its defense industrial capacity to help the Ukrainian military continue the fight.
– We need to make extraordinary efforts to make quick decisions and implement the initiative as soon as possible, as early as 2023 – the urgency of the situation in Ukraine demands it. The cost of any delay is very high, and it is growing every day,” the document says.
The proposal notes that this plan will allow European industry to increase its capacity by seven times and produce the 1 million 155mm shells requested by Ukraine over the next six months.
The additional €4 billion for the joint purchase of ammunition could be added to the EU’s existing European Peace Fund, which is currently used to reimburse countries for their military support of Ukraine.
The document emphasizes that Ukraine currently uses an average of 60,000 to 210,000 rounds of ammunition per month, but the European defense industry has the capacity to produce only 25,000 rounds in the same period of time. Under current circumstances, it would take up to four years to meet Kyiv’s needs.
