Germany’s Pistorius says EU will fall short of million shell pledge to Ukraine

The EU will not reach its goal of supplying 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by March, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the start of Tuesday's summit of EU defense ministers, Report informs, citing Politico.

"We have to assume that the 1 million will not be achieved," he said.

One way of doing a better job would be for defense firms to focus on sending more ammunition to Ukraine and exporting less to other countries, the EU's foreign and security policy chief, Josep Borrell, said.

Borrell questioned the claim that the EU's defense production capacity has reached the upper limit.

According to Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, the EU is producing at most 700,000 rounds a year, which falls far short of the estimated figure of 3 million that would be needed to supply Ukraine as well as to build up national ammunition stocks.