Delays in the provision of artillery shells promised by the European Union to Ukraine stem from insufficient military industrial capacity, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda believes.
“We have to admit that we have not yet reached the volumes that are necessary to continue providing this military support to Ukraine,” he told LRT TV on Monday.
His comment came after Bloomberg reported last week that the bloc is falling behind on plans to provide Ukraine, which is fighting back against Russia’s invasion, with a million artillery shells.
According to Bloomberg, the EU has so far only achieved about 30 percent of the target of delivering the artillery ammunition rounds to Ukraine by March 2024 and, based on the volume of contracts signed to date, risks missing it.
Speaking about the new 50-billion-euro financial package to support Kyiv, Nausėda said that “the political will is definitely there”. However, there are ongoing discussions on where to get these funds from, either through a reallocation of the EU budget or a commitment to new national contributions.
Nausėda hopes that a consensus will be found within a few months, he said.
The new financial instrument, consisting of grants and loans, was proposed by the European Commission in the summer.
“The question is whether this money will be enough, because we are talking about a longer period of time, which means [the amount] has also to be divided into years. Then we end up with an average annual amount that will be less than the 18 billion [euros] granted this year,” Nausėda said.
However, the Lithuanian president stressed that the countries had agreed to return to the issue, should Kyiv really need more funds.
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