The war in Ukraine has passed into the third year and the end is nowhere to be seen. Russia still has an immense advantage in troops, weaponry and ammunition. Even worse is the fact that while you regularly hear news about new supplies being pledged to Ukraine, a very small amount of the promised ammunition actually reaches the country at war.
Ukraine is suffering every day because it doesn’t have all the tools to defend itself. Image credit: National Police of Ukraine via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
In the most simple terms, Europe was not ready for a war of this scale. In fact, Europe was not ready for any war. The defence industry in Europe was dormant, not ready to ramp up the production of weapons and ammunition in the times of need and the invasion of Russia in Ukraine just revealed this comfortable betting on the peace that Europe lived by for so long. The main theme in the labyrinth of European politics remains support for Ukraine. But Ukraine does not want words, but shells.
The president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that of the one million artillery shells that the European Union promised to Ukraine, only about 30% reached Ukraine. And this is while every pledge to donate ammo and equipment to Ukraine is met with a self-soothing roar.
Zelensky and Ukraine in general are always grateful for news of military aid which is so desperately needed. But what is that news worth if the aid doesn’t come? Politicians shake hands, the media publish screaming headlines, but less than a third of the promised artillery ammunition has reached Ukraine.
And it seems that people don’t quite know that. Journalists asked Zelensky what he thought about the fact that only half of the European shells reached Ukraine. “Regarding Europe and the percentage you mentioned, that is not entirely true. Of the million shells promised to us by the European Union, not 50 but only 30 percent arrived. Unfortunately,” Zelensky noted.
It is not that Europe does not want to provide Ukraine with the tools to defend its freedom. It just doesn’t have them. Europe promised ammunition with hopes that it would find ways to ramp up the production at an unprecedented pace, but that was always going to be unrealistic. French President Emmanuel Macron said it best – “We did not have the million shells that the EU pledged to provide to Ukraine. It was an empty promise”. Empty promise and not much else.
There is a little bit of hope, however. The rate of production of ammunition in Europe is going up. Furthermore, Europe is looking at other countries where it could buy shells. The Czech Republic found around 800,000 different shells and funding is being prepared to buy and ship them to Europe and ultimately to Ukraine. This should relieve a disaster caused by ammo starvation. It was estimated that Ukraine would feel a catastrophic shortage of ammo in the coming months.
Written by Povilas M.
Source: TSN.ua