The EU on Friday said it would drastically increase ammunition production this year in response to Ukraine’s growing pleas for support in its war against Russia, which summoned the French ambassador to protest at the country’s “growing involvement” in the conflict.
Meanwhile, Ukraine called on western nations to stop Russia sourcing key parts for its own weapons production for the war that would soon be two years old and has left tens of thousands dead.
The EU would be able to churn out at least 1.3 million rounds of ammunition by the end of this year, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said on a visit to Estonia.
Photo: AFP
“We are at a crucial moment for our collective security in Europe, and in the war of aggression run by Russia in Ukraine, Europe must and will continue to support Ukraine with all its means,” Breton told reporters.
Breton said that by March or April EU nations would reach a production capacity target for 1 million ammunition shells each year.
“We will continue to enhance our production capacity, probably around 1.3 to 1.4 million ... at the end of this year and continue to increase significantly next year,” he said.
“We need to make sure that most of this is coming to Ukraine in priority. Because this is where there is an urgent need,” he added.
Ukraine on Thursday said that it faced a “pressing” need for ammunition, while Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba on Friday called for greater efforts to stop Russia sourcing weapons parts for its offensive.
“The West must get serious about strangling Russia’s ability to produce weapons,” Kuleba wrote on social media.
“According to some data, up to 95 percent of the foreign-produced critical components found in Russian weapons destroyed in Ukraine come from Western countries,” he added.
Kuleba did not provide evidence for the claim, but Kyiv regularly disassembles Russian missiles and drones that fall on its territory to analyze their components.
On the battle front, Ukraine staged an attack that sparked a huge inferno at an oil depot in western Russia, a Ukrainian security services source said.
The attack targeted a depot in Klintsy, about 70km from the Ukrainian border.
The strike was the second on a Russian oil depot in two days, after Kyiv claimed to have hit an oil storage facility in the northern Leningrad region on Thursday.
Russia stepped up diplomatic pressure, summoning France’s ambassador in Moscow and to make a formal complaint over his country’s “growing involvement” in the conflict.
Moscow claimed this week — without providing evidence — that it had killed a group of French mercenaries in a strike on the northeastern town of Kharkiv.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that French ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy was “presented with evidence of Paris’s growing involvement in the conflict over Ukraine.”
Moscow said that dozens of fighters were killed in the late night attack on Tuesday in Kharkiv, which Russian forces have been shelling since February 2022.
The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs denied the mercenaries claim as “another clumsy Russian manipulation.”
Paris has been a key ally for Ukraine since Russia’s assault, and French President Emmanuel Macron this week announced that his administration was sending dozens of long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Macron on Friday urged defense manufacturers to boost production to increase arms supplies for Ukraine.
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