By Andrew Gray
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba gets a chance on Monday to vent Kyiv’s frustration to European Union foreign ministers over wrangling that is holding up an EU plan to buy ammunition to help Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion.
Kuleba expressed frustration in a tweet last week that a landmark deal for EU countries to jointly buy artillery shells for Ukraine has not yet been implemented due to disagreements over how much of the business has to stay within Europe.
“The inability of the EU to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine is frustrating,” Kuleba said on Thursday.
“For Ukraine, the cost of inaction is measured in human lives,” he warned.
Kuleba can make his case directly when he discusses the state of the war and Ukraine’s needs by video link to a regular meeting of EU foreign ministers, taking place in Luxembourg. EU diplomats say they expect him to do so.
Artillery rounds, particularly 155mm shells, have become critical to the conflict as Ukrainian and Russian forces wage an intense war of attrition. Officials say Kyiv is burning through more rounds than its allies can currently produce.
The joint procurement plan is part of a multi-track EU deal to get 1 million artillery shells or missiles to Ukraine within 12 months and ramp up European munitions production, approved by foreign ministers last month.
The first element is the most immediate. It sets aside 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to reimburse EU governments for sending munitions to Ukraine from existing stocks.
EU officials pushed back against Kuleba’s criticism by stressing that this fast track is up and running so ammunition is already flowing to Kyiv.
But the second track, worth another 1 billion euros to fund joint procurement, has yet to be finalised.
EU countries agreed to buy the munitions from firms from the EU and from Norway, which has close economic ties to the bloc.
But diplomats say France – a champion of a stronger EU defence sector, with a substantial arms industry of its own – has insisted production itself should take place in Europe.
That stance has frustrated other EU members, including Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. They have expressed scepticism that European industry has the capacity to produce enough shells quickly.
EU officials and diplomats said they expected an agreement that would satisfy all sides in the coming days. But some had previously suggested a deal would come last week, after Easter holidays, only to see those hopes dashed.
“We should not lose sight of what our goal is here and that is helping Ukraine,” said an EU diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
($1 = 0.9100 euros)
(Reporting by Andrew Gray, Gabriela Baczynska, Philip Blenkinsop and Sabine Siebold; Writing by Andrew Gray; Editing by Stephen Coates)
