Pevkur: EU will send Ukraine 1.1 million rounds of ammunition by end of 2024
Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform) said on Wednesday the European Union will deliver a promised one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine by the end of 2024. However, it will miss the initial March deadline.
EU defense ministers discussed the ammunition for Ukraine initiative at an informal meeting in Brussels this week.
"Today we have good news – we will keep our promise to deliver one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine. Although they might not all reach Ukraine by March, we can be secure in the knowledge that it will come and that countries have made their contributions towards reaching that goal. As commitments stand, by March over 500,000 rounds will have reached Ukraine, and another 600,000 will reach them by the end of the year, so in total over 1,1 million," said Pevkur in a statement.
The European Union Member States agreed last spring to send one million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine to counter the Russian military aggression by March 2024.
We just agreed with the EU defence ministers, that we will keep our promise to deliver 1M artillery rounds to Ukraine
— Hanno Pevkur (@HPevkur) January 31, 2024
✅ Over 0,5M rounds will be reached by the end of March
✅ Over 1,1M rounds by the end of 2024
✅ EU production capacity will go up to 1,5M by the end of 2024
The minister also said it was a "pleasure" to see that the EU's defense industry has been able to "ramp up production in a big way".
"Although there is still room for development, in addition to ammunition in other areas as well. However, based on current ammunition prices and delivery times, we can see that we are able to produce, provided the money in the form of contracts is put on the table. By the end of the year, the artillery ammunition production capacity of European states is expected to rise to 1,5 million rounds per year," he said.
The defense minister said Estonia is contributing further rounds of ammunition for Ukraine in four figures. States have agreed not to publish exact figures.
Pevkur also met bilaterally with defense ministers from Luxembourg, Italy, and Romania.
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Editor: Helen Wright