The Artillery Coalition for Ukraine was launched in Paris. It will be led by France and the United States, and "the aim is to unite the efforts of the participating countries to help Ukraine have, in the short and long term, artillery forces adapted to the needs of the counter-offensive and its army of the future," Le Monde quoted the statement as saying.
The coalition currently includes 23 countries. The Artillery Coalition is part of a "coalition of capabilities" created on the basis of the Contact Group on Ukraine's defence.
Several such coalitions have been established in recent weeks: The United Kingdom and Norway lead a coalition on naval weapons, Estonia and Luxembourg lead a coalition on information technology, and the United States leads a coalition on air power.
The Ukrainian Minister of Defence planned to attend the opening of the Artillery Coalition in person, but cancelled his visit due to his participation in the Supreme C’n’C Staff. He spoke online.
"The Russian military industry enables its troops to fire tens of thousands of shells at Ukrainian positions. As the situation on the battlefield shows, there is no substitute for modern artillery. We must continue our efforts to improve our technological advantage, scale up ammunition production and improve our artillery capabilities," the Defence Ministry quoted him as saying.
Umerov said it was crucial to invest in the production of more artillery ammunition.
"Ukraine is taking steps to maximise our domestic production. Our enemy - our common enemy - has been preparing for a large-scale war for years. The Kremlin's military spending is setting new records. This is because Russia's plans will not stop in Ukraine. But our capabilities have also increased. And we have the results to prove it. Ukraine has destroyed 20% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. We have ruined Russia's control over the sea and airspace. We have defended ourselves against more than 7,400 missiles of various types and more than 3,800 Shaheds. At the end of 2023, Ukrainian troops shot down five Russian aircraft in a week. And recently we destroyed an enemy A-50 radar aircraft," he said.
Despite this, Russia is far superior in daily artillery attacks. In different parts of the frontline and stages of the fighting, they fired 5-10 times more artillery shells than Ukrainian forces.
"The shortage of ammunition and lack of shell is an extremely urgent problem that our Armed Forces are facing now. We need to find a way to solve this problem together," the minister added.