Kiev asks EU for 250,000 artillery shells per month

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Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote a letter appealing to the EU to send Ukraine 250,000 artillery shells a month, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

Reznikov's letter, sent to his counterparts in the 27 EU member states, said Kiev was seeking a quarter million artillery shells a month in order to ease a critical shortage limiting the country's progress on the battlefield.

Furthermore, the Ukrainian Defense Minister said Kiev's forces were only firing a fifth of the rounds they could have due to the lack of supplies.

"Artillery plays a crucial role in eliminating the enemy’s military power," Reznikov said, explaining that Kiev was firing some 110,000 155mm-caliber artillery shells a month, a mere quarter of the amount used by Russia.

Read: War in motion: Will new Western arms tip current balance in Ukraine?

"If we were not limited by the number of available artillery shells, we could use the full ammunition set, which is 594,000 shells per month," he said.

As per Kiev's estimates, "for the successful execution of battlefield tasks, the minimum need is at least 60% of the full ammunition set or 356,400 shells per month," Reznikov added.

According to defense analysts, Kiev has more than 300 artillery systems, most of which have been donated by allies.

The letter also made it to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's desk, who had a less expensive plan in mind, suggesting that the bloc spend €1 billion ($1.07 billion) over the next few months as a means of reimbursing member countries for the cost of the munition they donated to Kiev.

The strategy has been criticized by EU diplomats, who said the move was "not ambitious enough," noting that "Every day, Russia is shooting as many shells as Europe can make in a month. Ukraine needs more ammunition."

Documents obtained by Politico show that the EU has been supplying Ukraine with arms through an off-budget, inter-government cash pot called the European Peace Facility, which aims to "repay" countries that sent arms to Ukraine. It has so far paid Ukraine €3.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine, with member states deciding to increase its funding by €2 billion in 2023.

The documents suggest that €1 billion should be focused on ammunition, notably 15mm, as soon as the €2 billion top-up of the European Peace Facility is “operationalized.” According to an EU official, this means that half of the year's top-up should be for ammunition, mainly shells.

The document also anticipated the increase in European industrial production, which is straining to produce ammunition at the rate demanded by the war. 

The funding proposal also allows “voluntary financial contributions” for countries not to feel obliged to send aid such as Austria, which is neutral; or that are reluctant to provide weapons, such as Hungary, which sent aid to Ukraine as part of an "EU loan." However, Hungary stuck to its stance and still has not joined in on the Western-induced sanction campaign against Russia. 

Read more: EU to train 30,000 Ukrainian troops, doubling former pledge

The Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union Thierry Breton said earlier on Saturday that a shift to a wartime economy model in the EU has become imminent, arguing that the European defense industry must shift "to a wartime economy model to cater for our defense production needs."

Breton explained that with Borrell's support, the two were "determined to support the production ramp-up of the European defense industry to face the realities of a high-intensity conflict — starting with the question of ammunition."

According to Foreign Policy, Brenton and Borell have been working "on a plan to use €500 million of EU money to expand arms production by financing factory expansion, eliminating supply bottlenecks and placing big orders to stimulate investment."

The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) Marcel Fratzscher said earlier in February that since the start of the war in Ukraine, Germany has lost over $106.7 billion.

In an interview, Fratzscher told the Rheinische Post that "the Ukraine war and the associated explosion in energy prices cost Germany almost 2.5%, or 100 billion euros in economic output in 2022," adding that costs will continue to accumulate in the coming years.

Germany, according to Fratzscher, has been more severely impacted by the economic crisis because it is "extremely dependent on exports and global supply chains." 

Berlin also has a significant share of an energy-intensive industry that depends on increasing energy costs.