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More ammunition, faster and cheaper. It is the priority of the European Union in its support for Ukraine thirteen months after the start of the Russian invasion. The ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense have closed on Monday in Brussels a political agreement to launch the first joint purchase of weapons in the history of the European project, according to AFP. The signed plan establishes that 2,000 million euros will be allocated to finance the sending of projectiles to the ranks led by Volodimir Zelenski and to redouble the production capacity of the industry.

The Russian army fires up to three times more bullets into Ukrainian territory than Ukrainian soldiers. The war battle is already on the ground a fight for ammunition. With the taboos for sending anti-defense systems, medium-range projectiles, battle tanks and, recently, by Poland and Slovakia the first fighters, the priority is now centered around ammunition. Kiev estimates that it needs about 350,000 shells a month to repel Russian attacks and go on the counteroffensive, but the stocks of European armies and the production capacity of the Old Continent industry are well below that threshold.

To solve this gap, the EU has promoted a three-artery plan that allocates 2,000 million euros, under the European Peace Fund, to the shipment of ammunition, primarily 155-millimeter caliber howitzers, NATO standards. "There are many types of 155 mm, but we must concentrate on the most basic, we can not get lost in different variants, but in the most useful," explain high European sources.

The first leg is short-term. It involves urgently sending the projectiles already available in the reserves of the capitals. The first 1,000 million will finance 50% of these deliveries. The second is with a broader view. The other €1 billion will be part of a joint purchase of ammunition in the style of the one undertaken by the European Commission with vaccines during the time of the pandemic. And the third seeks to boost long-term production, in a long-term underlying war of European industry. Brussels has identified 000 companies in 15 member states, including Spain, with the capacity to produce ammunition.

The devil, in the details

"It's a political decision. We still have to send the political message and above all send the ammunition because Ukrainians need these projectiles and they need them now," said Gabrielius Landsbergis, upon arrival at the European Council building. One of the big questions is whether this agreement will materialize in time. There is still important technical work to get it up and running. And many negotiations between countries and with industry that could extend delivery for months. Even if contracts are signed tomorrow, it won't translate into a delivery in a matter of days. And the precedent of pooled purchasing vaccines is not encouraging: the lack of transparency in negotiations has been criticized and many of the doses purchased have not been used.

There are also redoubling misgivings in many capitals about an increasingly powerful European Commission, which has been gaining muscle and loudspeaker in this context of linked crises. Germany, for example, is already on the brakes. The country led by Olaf Scholz has unilaterally begun its own negotiations with the German war industry. In Brussels they try to downplay it by claiming that everything adds up, that all the ways are complementary, and that the objective is shared: to send more weapons, more modern and faster to Ukraine.

Another pending end is whether to limit this investment to purchases on European soil or extend it to companies from third countries such as South Korea. The Europeans do not have an itinerary of how many shells it will be able to produce or a clear delivery schedule. The modus operandi will be the one that has prevailed throughout the war. Urgency, improvisation and determination according to the demands coming from the Ukrainian front lines. Finally, there is the moral question. The EU, a peace project, is moving towards an organisation with more military muscle.

Finally, ministers welcomed the recent arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Vladimir Putin. "Putin will be arrested if he travels to more than 130 countries (members of the ICC)," Borrell applauded. While the leaders of European diplomacy were consecrated in Brussels, Chinese President Xi Jinping, meeting with Putin in Moscow, described The Hague decision as "double standards". "Xi and Putin signed an alliance without limits. The trip is framed in this context. I'm not surprised, I don't find it surprising, but I hope that Xi will convey important messages especially in the nuclear field," diplomatic sources said.

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  • Ukraine
  • European Commission
  • Germany
  • Olaf Scholz
  • South Korea
  • Vladimir Putin
  • Xi Jinping
  • NATO
  • Slovakia
  • Poland
  • European Union