Defense Post
March 8, 2023

EU Eyes ‘War Economy’ in Push to Rush Ammo to Ukraine

EU defense ministers will discuss Wednesday plans to raid their stockpiles to rush one billion euros’ worth of ammunition to Ukraine and place joint orders for more to ensure supplies keep flowing.

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Ministers meeting with their Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov in Stockholm will debate a three-pronged push to meet Kyiv’s immediate needs and bolster Europe’s defense industry for the longer term.

The first part of the plan, as laid out by the EU’s foreign policy service, envisions using a billion euros ($1.06 billion) from the bloc’s joint European Peace Facility to get member states to send shells in their stocks to Kyiv within weeks.

Ukraine’s European allies have already depleted their shelves, committing some 12 billion euros of military support, with 3.6 billion euros coming from the joint fund.

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The second part of the plan is to pool together EU and Ukraine demands to place massive joint orders that would incentivize ammunition producers to ramp up their capacity.

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“European industry is not adapted for the needs of a high-intensity conflict,” European internal market commissioner Thierry Breton told journalists Tuesday.

“Our defence industry must quickly switch to ‘war economy’ mode.”