Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has confirmed that the European Union will not be able to fulfil its plan to supply one million artillery shells to Ukraine by March 2024. During a telethon, the minister commented on a Bloomberg report that this commitment is unlikely to be fulfilled.
"Unfortunately, Bloomberg is telling the truth. There are questions and we are sounding the alarms a lot and loudly. I believe that the reason for this problem is not the lack of political will of the European Union to support Ukraine, as there is such political will, but the deplorable state of the defence industry, which is capable of producing enough shells, and warehouses, and the ability to sign external contracts. It turned out that there are a lot of obstacles, a lot of things that are not synchronised, a lot of bureaucracy," Kuleba said.
He added that the EU is working to eliminate these problems. Kuleba also called on the EU to develop new practices for the defence industries of EU member states and candidate countries.