The EU is ready to co-finance the supply of ammunition to Ukraine - Borrell

This was announced by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell during a press conference. According to him, the participants of the meeting discussed help in three areas:

Military equipment

“I propose to create an aid fund for Ukraine for 2024-2027 to ensure the sustainability of our military assistance.

This fund, which will be integrated into the European Peace Fund, should be a key element of our long-term contribution to Ukraine's security, as agreed by European leaders in June. They also offer a fund with an allocation of EUR 5 billion per year”, said Borrell.

EU training mission for the Armed Forces

“This mission has had a real impact and has been completed with unprecedented speed. As part of this mission, 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers have already been trained. We will also reach 30,000 soldiers trained for this mission by the end of October. I suggest to the Ministers to increase the key goal of the mission is to train 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers who will be trained by the end of the year”, explained the diplomat.

Ammunition

The High Representative of the EU underlined that European countries acted on this issue as part of a three-pronged initiative:

• The use of Europe's army reserves, which ended at the end of May. The amount of ammunition worth around €1.1 billion has been procured, which corresponds to around 224,000 rounds and around 2,300 rockets.
• In the summer, the European defense industry negotiated the purchase of 155 millimeter ammunition. Three framework contracts have already been signed. It is now up to the Member States to accept specific contracts under these framework contracts with industry.
• Development of industrial potential. The Ammunition Support Act, approved by the European Parliament in July, will provide a tool to support the EU ammunition industry.

“We have approached the Member States of the European Union and are ready to co-finance any supplies of EU ammunition exported from EU warehouses to Ukraine. If Member States are unable to provide more [transmissions] from their stockpiles, this is just an incentive to increase capacity,” added Borrel.