Madrid expects that the European Union (EU) will be able to agree on the issue of joint purchases of ammunition for Ukraine. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced this to reporters on Friday, March 3.
“We will have an occasion at the next meetings of the European Council to discuss this. We hope to reach an agreement on joint purchases of ammunition and artillery by the EU member states,” Sanchez said.
He stressed that the EU’s goal is to speed up the supply of weapons to Kyiv.
Earlier on the same day, Bloomberg wrote that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in the light of studying the possibility of joint purchases for Ukraine within the European Union, intends to discuss with US President Joe Biden a possible transfer of part of European production to the United States, where there is more capacity.
Before that, on March 1, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, called on the EU countries to allocate €1 billion for the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Borrell noted the importance of joint procurement for the continuation of assistance to Kyiv.
On February 27, Borrell acknowledged that the EU had broken its own taboo on arms sales to Ukraine. As the Financial Times (FT) noted, last year the head of European diplomacy asked the EU representatives if they agreed to use the European Peace Fund to arm Ukraine, but did not receive a clear answer. The head of European diplomacy nevertheless insisted on increasing the amount of funding for the fund.
On February 22, Borrell noted that it was naive to believe in the possibility of ending the conflict in Ukraine by refusing military assistance to Kyiv. At the same time, he assured that the supply of arms to Kyiv does not mean that the EU would not like to find a way to resolve the situation.
Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the backdrop of Russia’s special operation to protect Donbass, which the Russian authorities announced amid the aggravation of the situation in the region due to Ukrainian shelling.
