The European Union plans to transfer almost 170 thousand artillery shells to Ukraine by the end of March and is working on a further increase in supplies.

Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, announced this.

He stated this after a telephone conversation with Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

The Ukrainian diplomat stressed that the provision of ammunition is now a priority for the Armed Forces.

“Artillery shells are the absolute priority right now. By the end of March, the EU plans to deliver almost 170.000 rounds to Ukraine and is working to further increase the volume of deliveries,” the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister wrote.

Kuleba also thanked the EU for its “historic decisions” to provide Ukraine with weapons, impose sanctions against Russia, and start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU and support for the Ukrainian “peace formula.”

In turn, Borrell stressed that the European Union has been supporting Ukraine since the first day of the Russian full-scale invasion, “and we will continue to do so with one key priority: I urge Member States to provide additional military support.”

Shells for Ukraine from the EU

In November 2023, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister announced that the EU would not be able to fulfill its plan to supply a million artillery shells to Ukraine until March 2024, stressing that the European Union is working to eliminate problems.

Prior to that, Josep Borrell, Head of EU Diplomacy, shared that the European Union did not let go of the goal of supplying Ukraine with 1 million artillery shells by March 2024.

However, he noted that the promise may not be fulfilled in time. Everything will depend on the speed of ammunition production at the factories. He also stated that European defense companies still export 40 percent of their shells to other countries, not Ukraine.

Later, representatives of the European defense industry denied any wrongdoing in the failure of the plan to supply Ukraine with ammunition.

In January of this year, it was reported that the European Union countries will be able to produce more than 1.3 million artillery shells per year by the end of 2024.