On Tuesday 19 November, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced that the Member States had finally delivered the million rounds of ammunition promised to Ukraine, eight months late. In March 2023, the Europeans committed to sending one million artillery shells by March 2024.
“We have reached the target of one million ammunitions, we delivered them a few days ago (...) and we are going to continue to do so”, promised Mr Borrell at the end of the Foreign Affairs Council in defence configuration.
“The million shells promised by the EU have now almost all been delivered to Ukraine”, explained German Minister Oscar Pistorius on his arrival at the Council. “Today, parity has almost been achieved. This means that Ukraine now has as many artillery shells as Russia”, he stressed. “It’s a good result, but it’s not enough”, added Estonia’s Hanno Pevkur.
While the Europeans have made progress on ammunitions, the deadlock remains on the ‘European Peace Facility’. “Unfortunately, there has been no progress on the proposal” for voluntary contributions to the Facility, regretted Mr Borrell. He therefore asked the working groups and the ambassadors of the Member States meeting within the Political and Security Committee to continue working to find a solution. Some Member States would prefer to continue working on options rather than this voluntary contribution. Such a contribution would require the agreement of several national parliaments. The European External Action Service could retry the opt-out option for Hungary, with the funds it was to provide for Ukraine transferred back to other EPF support.
Questioned by Agence Europe, the High Representative explained that the fault lay with Hungary, which “continues to refuse its participation as provided for in the normal procedure”.
The Ministers also discussed the European Union’s military assistance mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine). “65,000 soldiers have been trained” so far, with a target of 75,000 by the end of the winter, explained the High Representative. He called on the Member States to reconsider his proposal to open a coordination unit in Kyiv. This office, comprised of five personnel, would help to coordinate European actions with the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces. Hungary is blocking this decision.
More broadly, Mr Borrell reiterated that the majority of Defence Ministers – notably those of the big five countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland) – with “a couple of exceptions”, were determined to continue supporting Ukraine.
Asked about Russia’s nuclear threats, Mr Borrell said they were “completely irresponsible”. “This is not the first time (Vladimir) Putin has taken a nuclear gamble”, he said, adding that “any call for nuclear war is irresponsible”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)